Friday, July 11, 2008

Totoro Forest Project

Framed and shipped!;


I'm very excited to tell you about an upcoming event that I'm honored to be a part of . I was invited to be one of the contributing artists for the Totoro Forest Project.

"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."

The project is being organized by Dice Tsutsumi, Enrico Casarosa, Ronnie Del Carmen, and Yukino Pang at Pixar.
There are some amazing entries...you really should head over and view them as well as read more about the project!

The theme is "What is your Totoro?". I had more than a few ideas, and was so inspired by the challenge that I executed two of them. The background inspiration for these comes from my own childhood treehouse. Growing up in a small town in Missouri, that treehouse resided in my backyard. Many a day I piloted spaceships from it, fought monsters and traveled through time. I guess you could say it was the crow's nest for my young boy imagination.





...and, to this day, I can rarely find solace more than when I'm in the presence of a tree.

9 comments:

Jon McNally said...

Awesome contributions, Paul. What a fantastic range of work in this project. I love everything I've seen thus far.

I share your tree-related sentiments. It's part of why life in the Northwest is so nice!

Breadwig said...

Rock on. They both look fabuloso. I also agree about the tree. One big reason why Vermont is so great.

david rubĂ­n said...

This project are awesome, I'm happy that you are there.

Paul come back! Oh, Yeah!!

d.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Totoro project got a plug from Animated-News.com.

http://www.animated-news.com/

Frogze said...

Hurray for the long awaited updates :D!

Both of your works on project Totoro look AWESOME, Paul! The first one especially blows my mind, in the way the kid's face makes the creature look like a cyclops, great work!

I'm so glad to see you back :)
I hope you've got a lot more coming because I'll stay tuned!

monkeyfeather said...

These are seriously awesome Paul. I'm a big fan of trees myself.

Sorry Pixar and the Bay Area didn't work out for you guys.

Paul Conrad said...

Thanks Jon and Breadwig... Yeah, whenever things pile up and I need to "take out the garbage"...a visit to the forest does wonders for me. Really cleans off the desktop, as it were.

Hey David, glad to be back! Thanks.

Johnt- it got plugged over on Drawn! too:

http://drawn.ca/2008/07/10/totoro-forest-project/

Frogze- That's funny! I hadn't planned for the cyclops visual...I was trying to convey the boys hands as the eyes of the creature instead!

Yes, I DO have more coming. Stay tuned!

Monkeyfeather- Thanks. And no worries on the Bay switch to Nashville, it's beautiful here, we are happy and looking forward to what the future holds. :)

Tim Baron said...

Beautiful work amigo. great to have you back: )

Paul Conrad said...

Thanks Tim...it's really good to be back!