Look closely at this here Ghibli grass👀
1. varied hues: not all same shade of green
2. patches of detail: contrast between empty space, & detail
3. subtle vertical brush strokes to indicate forms
The idea is to give *impression* of grass, not model each blade like Pixar.
Ideally we start with a pencil layout to figure out shapes and geometry, at painting stage it's good to be able to just paint. This way you also generate 2 nice pieces of art for a portfolio.
Nice camera move with just 4 flat painted layers:
Front two layers move ⬅️ and the back two layers move ➡️ giving the feeling we're turning around the house.
Hayao Miyazaki on shoestring budget for a children's TV show (Sherlock Hound ep 09)
Here's an example of brickwork, the painter hasn't tried to paint bricks but instead made some light indications in limited areas. The feeling of brick comes mostly from blocks of color variation. The contrast /detail comes from the shadows and occlusion created by the fixtures,
Closer to camera: can you see how each surface is mostly flat and the definition comes from the occlusion- the dark spaces light doesn't reach? It's a balance of negative space (surface) and detail (edges).
Another Kiki's Delivery Service concept painting.
Miyazaki: "This is how the Japanese imagine an old European city. There are elements of Naples, Lisbon, Stockholm, Paris and San Francisco, all mixed in"
Taking a look at some of the BG painting in Aladdin (1992)
Wide shot of the palace appears several times and they didn't just re-use one painting, there's several individual paintings of this scene at different times of day...
Observe this building wall- it's mostly a flat wash with all the detail focused on and around the door and window frames and in the signage. So if we get the fixtures right the wall takes care of itself.
Kazuo Oga painting for Totoro
Note the different hues for various types of wood- not all one colour. Diff textures, some reflective some not.
Each element has a tone/colour/texture all of its own. Roof is one thing, floor another. Subtle variation looks organic, naturalistic
Mario Odyssey desktop wallpaper I did ages ago- btw these downloads are free to use I sometimes get asked but you can use them on Twitch streams or for Youtube thumbnails or whatever you like as long as its kept free, someone is going to print one a playmat for Magic, fine by me
Painting by Laura Knight, look how many different types of blue there are in the sea. In photoshop we have to force this kind of variation a bit more than with real paint. Shadows aren't all one hue, nor is the grass etc. But it's not all out multi-color, needs a light touch.
Painting tip: In general tree foliage is much darker than grass. Trees particularly in mid summer are pretty dark against grasses, gives a nice tonal contrast. This is true irl and can be exaggerated in painting to good effect like this one.
Painting by Richard Thorn-
Regard this here table. The surface is negative space with very low-contrast detail, just subtle variations in tone and hue and a couple of touches. The extremities and the vernacular carving provide the detail, in this case with occlusion and edge lighting.
Gonna make the 2021 Wind Waker poster available as a full dpi free download to print at home next few days.
Same poster but with new logo design to keep the original 100 edition prints a unique thing. Print recommendation here is similar spec to what we did for the OGs.
If you like Hiro Isono you might like Tomás Sánchez, similar technique but a bit more toward realism, generally this school is called Magic Realism, Eyvind Earle (Disney BG) is another.
Sánchez born just 2 years after Isono btw...
Eyvind Earle- born 1916 and helped pioneer this style really. Defined shapes containing such intricate detail that it reads as kind of noise/ texture almost like moss, set against areas of flat negative space for balance
Not the best painting but it's good b'cos it shows off the concept I've been talking about: walls are a flat base wash with the definition painted after with darker, restrained details (not everywhere, not uniform) that provide just enough detail or definition to make it read as
Speaking of Kiki's Delivery Service it has one of the best body of references for coniferous trees in a Ghibli film I think, which are treated quite differently to the usual leafy deciduous types you see in Totoro etc
Again the wall is negative space, the windows and other fixtures are detail. Color and tonal variation can indicate texture of materials while keeping the space negative. The idea of balance between negative space and detail applies within shapes as well as without.
Snow painting from 101 Dalmatians, couple things: snow not uniform color, has varied hues in defined blocks/ sections, slightly diff shades of blue/ grey. Everything that isn't snow is very dark to give tonal contrast.
Good reference for painting stark light, hitting surfaces directly not general undefined gradients/ overlays. Just have to work it out spatially beforehand. Also see the saturated buffer zone on the wall between light and dark, adds some warmth and richness.
Fav painting of the palace, really strong silhouette, the city below is super organic with every building being a unique shape that fits into the whole, no copy pasting
I think walt is supposed to have not really liked the look of the movie, it was really a departure for them at the time, really trendy visuals using cutting edge tech (xerox), a masterpiece in hindsight tho
Recreated background pan from Pom Poko (1994)
Will post more about this film later but it's probably the gold standard for anime painting despite its relative obscurity as a movie
Development sketches for Future Boy Conan I think these are prob by Miyazaki from around 1978. Also cool to see how versatile poster paint is, can be used like watercolour as here but also when less diluted for matte painting as in final production BGs.
Couple of nice paintings from the pilot episode of Future Boy Conan (未来少年コナン)
Was remastered in HD recently but didn't get much attention. Hayao Miyazaki directed all 26 episodes, one of best tv shows ever imo.
General color palette of the movie is complementary red vs blue, sometimes the blue is more purple, sometimes the red is more pink but it's really warm and makes the location feel warm so works for the movie, it's very saturated as a result but I like it.
Painting light directly hitting surfaces without using gradients and fx tricks will just look painterly by default. Depends what style you're going for but light can have brush strokes like here and still feel like light. Not about accuracy/ photo-realism- it's a painting!
this one shows off the BG technique- the line is on a transparent sheet of celluloid over the top, the painting underneath is pretty much just roughly blocked in shapes of color
The way the metal domes are painted also features throughout in various ways we'll see later, it's a kind of hammered brass treatment, not too much specular lighting, one primary light source. Feels really heavy and rich.
These are concepts for the Pirate's sea-planes from "Porco Rosso"
They never harm anyone in the film ofc and in the epilogue they can be seen relaxing at the Hotel Adriano as veterans...
I think these where designs for use in a publication for sci fi etc
They are by Hayao Miyazaki . Ooh some have guns, in my naive way didn’t think they were weapons. Interesting all the same
More development drawings for Future Boy Conan by Miyazaki. He must have done thousands of these kind of watercolor sketches across all his productions... will make a nice book someday
Peder Monsted is the go-to reference for how to paint snow. Dark contrast of the twigs and bark provide the definition/ detail. The snow itself is almost flat, just subtle low contrast gradients to indicate forms with a slight edge highlight
Painting of Hotel Adriano's bar Yoji Takeshige for Porco Rosso.
With signage/ logos it's better to actually paint it than to superimpose a photo image. Can use an image to trace over the top but going the extra mile and actually painting the lettering makes a difference.
Trees have individual organic shapes with their own texture, grass has subtle texture too which contrasts against negative space of the wall and floor.
There's a lot of focus blurring in the movie which is a I think it's unnecessary and often distracting even like here.
Sure many already know but
@nicker_enogu
's offical youtube channel recently started a BG painting tutorial series with Yôji Takeshige (Studio Ghibli AD)
Painting from the finale of Porco Rosso. When a scene's predominantly blue like this it can feel quite cold so adding a hint of red like with the umbrellas warms it up, shifts the tone to something more playful. Doesn't take much to do it like 1% of the frame here.
NEW dynamic wallpaper, revisiting the Deku Tree after a long while.
If you have a Mac it changes gradually throughout the day. Also included 4K stills.
Download link for wallpapers is in my bio
A lot of the establishing shots in this movie are from aerial angles like this, makes it feel really dynamic and unusual. The way the marble is painted here is perfect, very subtle hue variation for the veins, feels reflective but not too much. Amazing details in this one.
Another painting by Laura Knight, nice trick with compositions that are predominantly cool colors is to add some limited reddish tones like the rocks lower left and the dash of red clothing, just that little bit of contrast warms the whole frame up
Painting and art direction are great overall in Aladdin, think it's aged very well compared to a lot of western animation from the period. It feels older than 92 in some ways, very influenced by Disney's past rather than what was around at the time I think.
A lot of the design is quite stylized like the cypress trees here but it's never too crazy. The wavy shapes make a nice contrast against the straight lines of the architecture.
Another really good one, the intricate details of the architecture contrast really nicely against the negative space of the sky, plus the red/ blue complementary colors.