"Over the years, we've seen them work in a style from cartooning to graphic arts to anime style — the Japanese cartoon style," Coston said. "This year, we decided to create a whole area for the artists who come from the animation profession."
The style brings a whole new dimension to the festival, he said. Typically, artists have favored portraits of parents or other loved ones, abstracts and re-creating the works of the masters, like Thomas Gainsborough's "The Blue Boy" or the works of French impressionist Claude Monet.
"Those are wonderful, but it's gratifying to see a younger generation of artists who enjoy approaching this art form with new contemporary styles," he said. "That's what we want to see happen."
There are 25 murals scheduled to be drawn in the Animation Alley. Some will be painted by teams and others by individuals, so there will be about 80 people creating the images in this section, he said.
They added this feature to the festival to bring together artists who may not know each other, he said.
"We're trying to build community, so to put them together is a nice way for them to meet and work together and it creates a great energy," Coston said.
Melody Severns, character layout artist for "The Simpsons," an animated television series, is bringing a team of colleagues to create two side-by-side murals measuring 8-feet by 16-feet. The team calls itself GirlsDrawinGirls.
The team originally got together more than a year ago to create a pinup book of different female forms, said Severns, who lives in Glendale. The book, "GirlsDrawinGirls: A Girl in Time," explores pinup art from cave women and into the future. The book comes out in July.
