Two bird pieces have been created for my tree drawings show in Sep.
The title for the first one is “fluffy get-together”.
I am still thinking about the title for the second owl piece…
Any ideas? 
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These are great Maki. Love them.
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Both are really beautiful, but my favorite is the owls! Thanks for sharing them.
Brenda
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Thank you so much for your kind words, Denise! 
Hi Brenda, thank you so much for your lovely comment!
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You have a very unique style and I love seeing your work. Thanks so much for posting it.
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Hello Teresa, thank you so much for your kind words. These pieces have been created to sell at my September tree drawings show. I’ve been working on tree drawings since last December, and the majority of the works are not for sale. But I want to include some items for sale because I need to cover the expenses related to have a show. The long-tailed tits are extremely popular around here and so are the owls, although the ones I’ve drawn are not the kind of owls living in Japan. Anyways, glad you enjoy my works! 
Are these done in pen. They are fantastic
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Hello Dan, thank you so much for your kind words. They are both ballpoint pen drawings. 
SO cute! 
The owl one seems like a family tree, so maybe some wordplays/inspiration from that idea? “Who–Us?”
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Hi TheMustardSeedLife, thank you so much for your comment. Sorry, I really don’t get it, and that is probably because of so-called language barrier. I’ve posted the owl one on my facebook page and one of the followers simply suggested “Who’s there?”, which I did not get either. But both you and the follower somehow use “who” in the title suggestion, so I guess that is the key word…Really sorry to trouble you, but may I ask you to clarify your title idea? I cannot decide to use the title which I don’t understand. I know that you’re busy with your own creative activities, so only if time allows. Thank you!
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Hi Maki - I’ll step in to comment and clarify. WHO … WHO is the considered to be the sound that owl’s make and using WHO associated with owls is so common in the United States that it is even used in television advertising. Hope that helps.
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Sorry for the confusion! 
It’s just like @robichon said, “Hoo” or commonly a wordplay using “Who” is the onomatopoeia of owls in English, as well as “Hoot”. This should be similar to " ホーホー" in Japanese. I hope that clears it up! 
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Hi Teresa, thank you so much for the clarification! I do appreciate it!
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Hello TheMustardSeedLife, thank you so much for your explanation. Well, it is half clarified…the “who” part is OK, I mean, why the word “who” is used for this drawing is now perfectly clear. But what is the implication of “Who-Us?” and “Who’s there?” As to the former, the one you suggest, does this mean “who are we?”? I mean, following my understanding of the English grammar, “Who-Us” does not make sense and I don’t know why the two words are hyphenated.
Again, if only time allows, I’d appreciate it if you would add some explanations.
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Sure, @Maki , I can explain! For “Who–Us?”, I actually put a double dash, so two hyphens, but the forum is changing it to one long hyphen(which I believe is also called an “em dash”). Anyway, in English writing, particularly in comics and/or dialogue, hyphens and double dashes can be used to convey a sudden stop in the speakers dialogue. The “Who” part is meant to be “who”, the onomatopoeia, as well as “Who” the English word, meaning, “what person?” (this is a common English wordplay, because the words sound alike). So, for “Who” it’s as if the owls are making the sound “Who”(onomatopoeia) and also questioning “Who are you looking at?”. The “Us” part is to follow up to the question, "Who are you looking at? " with another question, “Us?”, like the owls want to know “Are you looking at us?”, because in your beautiful picture we as the viewers make eye contact with the owls.
The “Who’s there?” suggested by someone else, seems like it’s also using the common English wordplay. I hope this makes sense, please don’t hesitate to ask more! 
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Thank you TheMustardSeedLife, I think I finally got it.
You mean something like this, don’t you?
Now I think I can use “Who-Us?” as the title of this piece.
My final question is, you think that English speaking viewers coming to my show would instantly get what this title means if exhibited this way?
But I think I need to think about a different Japanese caption. 
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This is really long…
Yes, @Maki , that’s a nice way of illustrating what I meant! It’s hard to say if English viewers would infer the question of “Who are you looking at? Us?”/“Are you looking at us?” from “Who–Us?”. Maybe creating a new thread specifically for feedback on that could be helpful. However, there’s almost no doubt that the wordplay on “Who” will be understood. Now, considering that fact, “Who–Us?” may not be YOUR title, because “Who” may be considered overused in English, and the title may not be THAT original. (but if you do go with that title, in my opinion a double-dash looks better than the em dash; the em dash looks like a giant hyphen/hyphenated word)
My suggestions would be:
- If you have time, toss around more ideas for the title. See if you can draw inspiration from your newly learned onomatopoeia/wordplay, “Who”!
- Are there any owl sound wordplays in Japanese that may also make sense or create a fun title in English?
- If you still like “Who–Us?”, I would recommend seeing what other English-speakers think, besides me!
You’ve chosen awesome titles before, so don’t worry too much!
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Hello TheMustardSeedLife, thank you so much for your very kind advice.
Well, following your advice, I tried getting back to my original purpose for drawing this piece. My focus was on the situation where some fluffy animals cuddling together and feeling comfortable. In Japan, we have a well-known word “neko-dango”, meaning some cats packed in a small space cuddling tightly together. “Neko” means cat/cats, and “dango” comes from “kushi-dango”, a skewered dumpling. I wanted to draw “owl-dango” so to speak, instead of “neko-dango”. So the Japanese title for this piece should be “fukuro-dango”. I’m sure that the Japanese speaking viewers will instantly understand what I mean by this title and they will probably giggle. Then, the English version of the title would be something like “cuddle bug owls”? I’ve been checking lots of cats rescue related information and the term “cuddle bug” has been used frequently for describing how feral cats have turned into sweet friendly cats by getting safe and comfy circumstances. So my guess is the word “cuddle” has some warm and comfortable, and somewhat cute nuance, and adding “bug” there would add some humor. Then “cuddle bug owls” should be able to convey the atmosphere of the Japanese title “fukuro-dango”. What do you think?
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Love the story behind the Japanese title, “fukuro-dango”, really awesome! Upon further research, in English “Cuddlebug” is used for cats, but it is also a term of endearment (ex: husband calls his wife, “cuddlebug”). The name “Cuddle Bug Owls”, is cute, maybe “Cuddlebug Owls” could work as well, or something like “Cuddling Owls” if you don’t want the word “bug” next to “Owls”. There may be pastry-related words like kushi-dango for the same picture/story-telling purpose in English… 
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