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Phew, I thought I would not be too busy at work anymore since my main duty on Toy Story 3 was over but in the past 3 weeks, I’m back on it full time to help some issues we’ve been having! Late nights and weekends back again… It’s almost there though..

Anyhow, I recently was asked by the family of Joe Hisaishi to do an illustration to celebrate his recent achievement in Japan. He was awarded with a Medal of Honour with purple ribbon by the Government of Japan for his life time achievement as one of the most respected composers in the history. This illustration will be used on several thank you gift packages his Family has put together.

For those who don’t know him, he is most famous for his amazing music he created for every film Hayao Miyazaki directed. He’s also done tons of other films including last year’s Oscar winning “Departures.”

you don’t know how excited I was to get this job. Hisaishi is by far my favorite film music composer and I grew up with his music along with Miyazaki’s animations.

The other day, a package arrived at my office post marked Paris, France.
It was from one of my beloved friends and my favorite artists ever, Rebecca Dautremer.

The package included several of her new books including Art of Rebecca Dautremer.
As many of you artists and art fans love collecting art books, I too don’t think twice about spending my time and limited wealth to pursue art books.
But among the uncountable number of art books I have both at home and at my office, this book could well be my No.1 book.

Besides her genius artistry showcased in every single page, the book is beauuuuuuutifuly put together. Paper, print quality, binding, design, type.. everything about this book is artsits’ dream.

Rebecca has been one of the best selling children’s book artists in Europe for some time.
I remember back in 2006 when we had the first Out of Picture exhibition in Paris, my French illustrator friend Gerald Guerlais asked me, “Dice, since you are coming to Paris, is there anyone you want to meet?” So Rebecca was the first name out of my mouth.. jokingly.
Then to my surprise, I was introduced to her in Paris thanks to Gerald the crazy who found her phone # in yellow pages and called her up out of blue.

Ever since, Rebecca participated Sketchtravel, the project Gerald and I launched and also she generously donated her master piece to Totoro Forest Project auction. She’s one of the most prolific artists I can think of and her work never gets old or repetitive. She keeps challenging herself with something new each time she creates her book.

Unfortunately, not many of her beautiful books are available in the U.S. It is truly a shame since I don’t think there is any children’s book that have that kind of magic Rebecca’s books carry. But thanks to the age of internet, you can order her book from Amazon Canada!

Especially this book, I’d pay whatever to get it before it disappears if I were you.

Hope everyone had a wonderful 2009 and is excited about upcoming 2010!

Looking back at my own 2009, it was just as hectic as ‘08 when I organized Totoro Forest Project.
I consider myself “moderately lazy and mildly hardworking” animation artist but this past year, I did work hard. It was my first film at Pixar and felt like I had to prove myself all over again in the new environment. I color keyed 90% of the film which I had never done in my career. Lots of late nights and weekend hours….

By the way, they released a few of my work on Toy Story 3 if anyone’s interested!
It’s all here>>>>>
It was a bit of a surprise that they released art work so early.

Anyhow, happy 2010! May 2010 be even better for all of you!

What a trip! What a country! What a group of people we met!
Our trip to Argentina was simply unbelievable.
The art expo, Inspiration Fest was fantastic! The festival was not just of animation but of all sorts of visual genres. All the artists they invited from all over the world were top notch in their respective fields. Guillaume Vallee from Motreoal does this amazing paper art with his brother. German light artist group, Light Faktor, and this organization hosting “Iron Chef of design”, Cut and Paste to name a few!

Of course, I met many many talented Argentinean artists who have treated us like they have been friends with me for years and years. That includes the world famous Senor Carlos Nine.

I must say that being an artist is a special privilege. Wherever you go, we tend to connect very easily.
We met some nice nice artist people in Buenos Aires.
I met one of my best friends Gerald Guerlais who has been co-managing this pet project of ours, Sketchtravel, in the same way.
We felt like we had known each other for many many years the first time we met in Paris.

And once again, it is so humbling to go out to a foreign city.
There are so many many talented artists out there who would blow my mind.
It always reminds me that I should not feel content in the little tiny world I’m in.
The source of inspiration in the world is limitless. It is a must for artists to travel and see the world…

I managed to do a few paintings during this trip as well as tons of sketches. This is a painting in La Boca in Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, the weather was overcast but the vivid color of the humble neighborhood still overwhelmed my palette. Stay tuned for the trip section of my trip to Aegentina soon!

I am off to Buenos Aires for a 10 day trip.

I am invited to this Art Expo in Buenos Aires this coming weekend to give a talk. Argentina is one of the countries I always wanted to go so it was perfect. And amazingly, I finished the colorkeys of the final sequence of the film a day before my vacation. It all worked out!

As some of you may know, I am doing this side project called Sketchtravel with my best buddy Gerald Guerlais. I’m using this opportunity to bring the mighty sketchbook to Carlos Nine! He has been one of my FAVORITE artists since I first saw his work when I was a student. I’m supposed to meet Senor Nine as soon as I get there. I can’t wait to see what Carlos will do to contribute to this already-mind boggling project!

Come to the Sketchtravel blog in a few weeks to get the full report on my endeavour!

It was truly humbling to have the colorscript panel with my heroes at CTN Expo a few weekends ago. And lots of people came to see the talk. Thank you… I wish we had more time to talk in depth.
This is the colorscript from Horton Hears A Who. I keep wanting to write a break down of my approach on colorscript. Stay tuned….