Enrico’s blog

No they’re not the books, though they almost look like it. Postcards fresh from the printers, you can get some of these at the Con in San Diego at a couple of tables (Scott Morse’s and OutOfPicture Press’). Spreading the word … and no unfortunately I won’t make it down to San Diego this year. Will have to live vicariously through the many friends down there and also you! Have a great time.

I wanted to tell you about one of the two pieces I did for the Totoro Forest Project. One of the wonderful discoveries of this project has been reading all the great stories it brought out from all the artists involved. So, here’s the story behind my “Kappa Ramen”. The title comes from the Ramen restaurant just left of the picture. I actually drew a restaurant just by that name a few years back in Japan, in Takayama a little mountain town. I didn’t go look at that old drawing but the little stand with the ramen cup on top is very similar to what I remember. This tree spirit seems to be a little bit like an homeless bag lady, roaming the streets and collecting trash. Maybe he’s recycling or maybe he’s just lost. I am pretty sure though he’s been evicted from his tree.

The idea for this piece was first born out of this photoshop sketch. The image just sort of came out of my head and the story unfolded from the image. Very often doing a photoshop study for a piece can take the wind out of my sales in actually finishing the piece. This time around though I really wanted to turn this digital illustration into a watercolor.
When I got to the day I wanted to start it though I didn’t have a printout of the image, I’d forgot it at work. I knew that it was on the internet though on a temp site we had made, so I ended up redrawing it in pencil on watercolor paper while looking at the digital sketch on the screen of my laptop. It was pretty silly, but also kind of fun, bit of a challenge. Thinking about it now, the strange process probably helped me keep the new drawing alive, since I couldn’t trace or copy the first one.

I worked in consecutive washes of blue, getting darker and darker. The eyes of the totoro spirit are the only part of the watercolor I left completely white. The step I left for last was the actual spirit, which was done with one wash only, watercolor’s transparency totally suited the subject and I am quite happy how this all turned out. As you can see Fio helped too.

And here’s the final! For Japanese speakers, maybe you noticed I mispelled “Ramen” on the sign. It should be ラメーン. Ah well …

Oh neat, look forward to this wordpress app for the iphone.

This Saturday we had a chance of seeing all the artwork for the auction in one room and wow, what an amazing sight to see it together. Fantastic really. And look at that banner! Pretty sweet uh?! You might catch a closer look of it in San Diego this week if you’re going down there for ComicCom. It will be at the Out of Picture booth. Go by and say hi to Dice and the rest of the gang. You can also pick up some postcards we made for both the Totoro Forest Project and the Venice Chronicles.

Ghibliworld has posted a translation of the latest Toshio Suzuki’s radio show Ghibli Asemamire. It features a lengthy interview with Hayao Miyazaki. He speaks his mind about Ponyo, going back to living simply, the state of the world, nurseries and much more. I found it a wonderful and inspiring read, don’t miss it.

Yay I just sent all the files and the laser copies of every page of the Chronicles to the printer in HongKong! Time to make this book!

The TFP website has been updated and everyone’s work has now been uploaded! Don’t miss perusing through this fantastic and diverse collection of more than 200 pieces of art. Each artist’s take on the world and inspiration of Totoro is truly a wonder to behold. I’m gonna feature a little work in progress of my two images in a few days.

Unfortunately I lost the rough thumbnail I had done for the Gondola piece. The basic layout though started as a vertical one with me drawing on the footsteps of a canal and Marit passing on a gondola. I wanted a lot of water to fill a good amount of the cover, so to fit the title in white. When I started drawing it though I kept on adding details on the left and I ended up with more of an horizontal layout. Here’s a couple of different designs for the cover, trying to use a little bit more of the artwork in the first one.

Ultimately I went back to the first idea and decided I didn’t need the subtitle. So here it is finally the cover for the Venice Chronicles!


The book is about to go to print, it will be available in October, it’ll be distributed by the fine folks at AdHouse Books! We’ll be at APE with it. Unfortunately I won’t be making it to ComicCon this year but I am planning to make some postcards to send down with a few of the friends attending.

All the steps of the “Making of” this cover are here: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh post.

Ladies and gentlemen we present you: “The Totoro Forest Project”. A little idea that turned into a major undertaking. What is it exactly? Totoro Forest Project is an international charity effort to preserve Sayama Forest, also known as Totoro Forest. This endangered sanctuary on the outskirts of Tokyo is where director Hayao Miyazaki got the inspiration for his much loved character “Totoro.” Over 200 top international artists from animation, illustration, and comics are donating artwork especially created for this cause. On september 6th 2008 Pixar Animation Studios will be hosting an art auction event featuring all these fantastic pieces of art. All the proceeds of this fundraiser will benefit the Totoro Forest Foundation. On top of the auction we are producing a wonderful art book of the auction pieces and we’ve also managed to secure an exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.

Miyazaki San has been (and continues to be) such an inspiration to so many of us — a huge influence on me that’s for sure — so we thought it’d be nice to give something back for all the years of wonder and magic he’s given us. That’s how we came to this project. The website just launched (thanks to talented Erena Shimoda) and it’s already filled with amazing art! We will keep on updating it in the next few weeks till we have everyone’s totoro inspired artwork on it. You’ll find all sorts of information there.

Lastly I would like to give a major pat on the shoulder to my great friend Dice Tsutsumi, he’s really been the architect of this amazing effort, together with Yukino Pang, they’ve been burning the midnight oil to make this upcoming benefit a reality. This is an idea Dice and I thought of on our commute to work almost a year ago, we could’ve only dreamed then of the event this is turning into. There’s still a lot of work ahead but we are very proud we finally get to share some of this news with you all. Many thanks also to the other committee members and other fantastic friend Ronnie del Carmen. And a huge thanks to all the artists who donated their work! You absolutely rock! This is an amazing, never before seen together kind of collection. It gives a heartwarming sense of community to see you all answering the call the way you did to help save Totoro Forest. We hope all of you out there will want to participate in supporting this cause with us.

How I loved Richard Scarry books when I was a kid. I learned my first words on these and most of the characters and images are just ingrained in my DNA. It’s so amazing and nostalgic to rediscover them now with Fio, will she learn her first words with these books too? Will she have the luck of reading them with her son/daughter too?