Artist Spotlight: Gio Gio Art

I found this terrific illustration of San the Princess Mononoke at the Reddit Ghibli thread. It was created by a person named "Gio Gio Art," who also has an Instagram account at "Giorgio.rt."

This piece has a great sense of tension in its pose, a sense of action and motion. I think it defines the character very well, who is defined by action and assertiveness. San is not a "cutesy" anime character but a tough gal who will whomp you six ways from Sunday.

I also enjoy the color palette with its light brown fur and ample use of empty space. The red tones on the mask are especially nice as well, as are the blood splatters. All in all, great work.

Artist Spotlight: Iggy Starpup

Phoenix-based artist and illustrator Courtney Doom, aka Iggy Starpup, has created a series of lovingly crafted Studio Ghibli felt embroideries. According to her bio profile, she crafts pop culture-themed embroidery hoop art and subjects also include Harry Potter and Pokemon.

Iggy Starpup is an arts graduate of Arizona State University and enjoys crafting, drawing, photography and film. You can purchase her work directly from her Etsy page.

More photos of her Studio Ghibli craft works are available below the jump.

(h/t to the excellent Ghibli Collector)

Artist Profile: Totoro and No-Face by Sarah O'Donald

Artist and illustrator Sarah O'Donald has crafted this vibrant illustration of Totoro and No-Face sharing a tea time. I really enjoy this piece, the colors and details are superb and demonstrate the artist's skills at composition.

You can visit Sarah O'Donald's Instagram page, which features dozens of illustrations that are absolutely brilliant. She has also made numerous appearances at art shows where her works are available for sale, featuring fantasy themes and characters from animation, comics and videogames. Her output is quite remarkable and I'm amazed at how much she has created. She must be spending every waking moment drawing and painting, which is, of course, the true goal of any artist. I'm very impressed and more than a little jealous. My artistic skills are nowhere near as refined and inspiring as these.

Great work! Here's wishing for your success!

Artist Spotlight: Isao Takahata by Don Low

Today's artist spotlight is the illustrator and comics artist Don Low, who created this tribute to Isao Takahata, surrounded by characters from his Studio Ghibli animated features. You can follow Don Low's work at his website, which I highly recommend. Great work!

Artist Spotlight: Princess Kaguya by MissGreatPersonality

This excellent illustration of Princess Kaguya by Reddit user "MissGreatPersonality" appeared on the Ghibli forum, and I wanted to share it here. She created this piece as a tribute to Isao Takahata, and appears to be created with ink and watercolors, with a terrific use of color and zen space. It captures the feel of the character very well.

I saw The Tale of the Princess Kaguya in its US theatrical run four years ago, was completely mesmerized and overwhelmed. I knew that it was most likely the final Takahata movie, and the story is very reflective on themes of mortality and the beauty of life. Why have I not written about this movie in all this time? Because I'm still coming down from that experience. I'm still wrapping my head around it. It is an absolutely perfect capstone to a miraculous career.

What a genius. We have nothing in the West that even approaches what Paku-san could achieve seemingly at will. I wish that our filmmakers would at least try. Wes Anderson had a great stab with Isle of Dogs. That's a good start. Let's see more.

Artist Spotlight: Spirited Away by Vannah Galaxy

Vannah Galaxy is an up-and-coming visual artist who is extremely skilled with pens and paper. Her dreamlike illustrations are imaginative and inspiring. She works with colors and paints, but my favorites are drawn in black-and-white, much like underground comics. Here, we see one of her favorite movies, Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, rendered in intricate detail, capturing its many wonderfully surrealist characters. On her Instagram page, Vannah describes the creative process behind this piece:

My personal favourite Ghibli movie ♥So this was done almost entirely traditionally, with mostly 0.03 and 0.05 copic pens. I finished my shading last night and scanned it today. After I cleaned up some of the black areas (the ink can be a bit shiny, and it shows when scanned), I added some pale grey shadows for a little more depth. This piece is a little smaller than A3 and I'll definitely be selling prints sometime in the future if anyone's interested :)

Artist Spotlight: Totoro and Friends

You can never have enough Totoro fan art, it seems. I'm always amazed at the level of creativity and inspiration this humble little movie has spawned. Sometimes I have to pinch myself and remember that My Neighbor Totoro was an extremely obscure movie in the West as recently as a decade ago. Yes, it had a measure of success on home video (read: VHS), but the wider public never really discovered Miyazaki. Today, there is a thriving and growing fan community.

I really like this painting, which incorporates several Hayao Miyazaki characters into a Classical Japanese watercolor art style. We even see a cameo by the director himself in the background. Totoro shares the spotlight with No-Face, the Soot Sprites, a Kodama and Catbus, who appears as a kite. The composition is nicely balanced, which is a challenge when there's so many characters in view.

The artist who created this piece did an excellent job. Unfortunately, I was not able to discover the artist's name, so if you know who is responsible for this painting, please pass it along so that we can give proper credit.

Bocanada: A Journal of Pop Culture and the Arts - The New E-Zine From Ghibli Blog

Have you downloaded your free e-zine yet?

Many years ago (longer than I care to admit), I created zines to nourish my love of writing and popular culture. I wrote about Star Trek and science-fiction, video games, music, art, and the ups and downs of daily life. They were created on simple desktop publishing software, word processors, and an assortment of clip art and marker pens. It was very low-tech, but highly enjoyable. I even managed to score some freelance writing work at GamePro, which was tremendous fun

Ever since then, I wanted to return to zines. I even had recurring dreams about finding an old computer with long-forgotten websites that were still active, and communicating with old friends. 21 years later, while working on my multiple book projects, I thought it would be fun to finally take the plunge again and create a zine that I could share with my readers and fans. And so Bocanada Issue 1 was born.

Bocanada: A Journal of Pop Culture and the Arts. That long-winded title means, simply, that I get to write about whatever the heck I want, but mostly aimed in the same direction as my writings on Ghibli Blog and the new books: Zen Arcade, Pop Life and Greatest Hits.

For Ghibli Freaks, this issue includes essays on Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke and My Neighbors the Yamada. For classic and retro video game fans, there are reviews of Altered Beast (Genesis), Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis), Bonk's Adventure (TG-16), Mega Man (NES), and Street Fighter 2 Turbo (Super NES). For music lovers, we have articles on Miles Davis' 1974 jazz-fusion album Get Up With It and Sony's PS-X75 Biotracer Turntable. Finally, we have an art gallery of zine-worthy graffiti works created by me back in 2002.

The cover image is another one of my artworks, a 2005 digital painting created entirely on computer. The title is an homage to Gustavo Cerati's 1999 album, a glorious mashup of trip-hop (remember that?), Radiohead's Kid-A and The Beatles. The pages are "half-size," meaning that they are standard 8.5" x 11" pages folded in half. The zine is 48 pages in total, which matches the output of my old zines perfectly (they were 245 pages at standard size).

Bocanada was created for both physical and digital formats. I find the half-size format works perfectly for tablets and even smartphones. The pages are very readable and neatly designed without becoming too cluttered or dense. I created everything on Scribus, a freeware tool, which I suppose would disqualify me in the eyes of many zine publishers -- it's not a "real zine" unless everything is created on a typewriter, scissors and markers. Whatever.

Bocanada is available as a "perma-free" download, meaning the digital version will always be free. All you have to do is join my mailing list. In addition to receiving the zine, you will also receive regular email newsletters that feature the latest news and developments from DT Media (my indie publishing label) and Ghibli Blog, including the new books!

When is Bocanada Issue 2 coming? Soon. I'm still very busy with releasing the books, assembling the new DT Media website, and doing the usual promotional work (translation: hassling everyone with review copies and appearance requests). If we can assemble and publish the second issue in time for Thanksgiving, I'd be thrilled.

As always, thank you very much for your continued support of Ghibli Blog.

P.S. I keep mentioning the new books: Zen Arcade, Pop Life and Greatest Hits. Well, the books are finished and ready to roll out! As for release date, availability and price...join my mailing list and I'll share all the answers in my next newsletter.

Update (10/4 8:23pm): Bocanada now has a new cover design! I like it a lot, and hope you will, too.

Artist Spotlight: Totoro Gothic by Katie Wu

This is just too funny: Mei and Totoro recreate the famous painting American Gothic. It's one of the most parodied paintings of the modern era, and artist Katie Wu gives it a Studio Ghibli spin. Mei looks a little bit like a Peanuts character, which would have been even funnier.

You can find Katie's artwork and many others at the Fans of Studio Ghibli page on Facebook. There are countless drawings and illustrations by Ghibli Freaks of all ages and skill levels, and it's quite impressive. Good work, everyone!

Artist Spotlight: Hipster Totoro

Today's Artist Spotlight is a charming little illustration I found online. It's none other than "Hipster Totoro," or maybe "Indie Publisher Totoro." He looks just like me, except for that coffee (I had to give up coffee a year or so ago).

I remember a couple years ago when "Hipster Ariel" became a rolling internet meme. I can't see why Hipster Totoro couldn't work just as well. I'll just post this image here and leave you to create the funny wisecracks.

Unfortunately, I don't know the artist who created this piece. If you find him or her, be sure to send your thanks. Great watercolor design!

Artist Spotlight: My Neighbor Totoro by Louise Terrier

These excellent watercolor paintings were created by French artist Louise Terrier. She created a series of artworks dedicated to the movies of Studio Ghibli, including My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle.

According to an article on Demilked, Terrier was inspired to create since early childhood, when she was encouraged by her parents. “When people ask me: where does that creative energy come from? I would say I don’t know! But it’s just a part of me, like my nose in the middle of my face! Even though my studies take the most part of my time, the pleasure to paint never leaves me.”

These watercolor paintings are absolutely spectacular. I wish I had a studio space where I could just cut loose and create wild colors like these. I'm a great fan of vivid color tones and expressionist brushstrokes, which these Totoro pieces have in spades. The compositions are also quite excellent, taking advantage of the picture frame to emphasize emptiness and action, movement and stillness. There's also something of an Asian style in the compositions, a use of flat planes instead of the Western "vanishing point". It fits the subject matter perfectly. Terrier's other Ghibli paintings are equally impressive, and I highly recommend you check them out.

As always, if you know of any other artists who you'd like to see profiled in out "Artist Spotlight" series, please send a message, including a link to the artist's website. Much thanks in advance.

Artist Spotlight: Studio Ghibli's Star Wars by Lap Pun Cheung

Back in 2016, a friendly arts competition entitled "Star Wars Reimagined" asked conceptual artists to create their own unique take on George Lucas' sci-fi universe. Lap Pun Cheung, a video game concept artist at Boss Mode Games took inspiration from the films of Studio Ghibli, creating a series of scenes the combine the visual flair of Hayao Miyazaki to the Star Wars saga. The resulting series of digital paintings are highly colorful and impressive.

I really enjoy seeing Darth Vader mashed up with Castle in the Sky, or Darth Maul in a Mononoke mask. Many of these designs have more of a generic "anime" style in terms of color and shape, and feel less like a "Ghibli" style, but the artist was no doubt aiming for variety. It wouldn't do much good to create half a dozen Future Boy Conan paintings packed with Ewoks and droids.

You can visit Lap Pun Cheung's portfolio, where he describes his Star Wars pieces in greater detail.

Artist Spotlight: Kiki and Jiji by Ian Lee

Here is a charming illustration of Kiki and her pet cat, Jiji. I like this cartoon style a lot, and like many Ghibli art pieces, I'd like to see more. You can find Ian's Instagram page here. Send him your thanks.

Artist Spotlight: Studio Ghibli Pixel Art by Richard J. Evans

Three years ago, artist Richard J. Evans embarked on an interesting project: a series of digital artworks based on the movies of Studio Ghibli, rendered entirely in "pixel art." This is an art style that is deliberately low-fi, low-resolution and quite blocky, inspired, one supposes, by the look of computer graphics from the 1980s. This sub-genre of art has become very popular in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down.

Evans successfully captures the hand-drawn animation style of the Ghibli films quite masterfully, with a very wide color palette at his disposal (much more than what was available on computers and videogamess of the 1980s), and everything is sharply detailed, which maintaining those large blocky pixels. The ones you see here are my personal favorites, but the artist has also paid tribute to nearly every Ghibli movie ever made, and they're all terrific.

Overall, great job. Creating art within very hard limitations can be quite challenging, but the results are equally rewarding.

You can see more of Evans' work on his website. Be sure to send him a thanks for his efforts.

Miyazaki Art Show at Spoke Art Gallery

New York's Spoke Art gallery held a "pop-up" exhibition this weekend devoted to Studio Ghibli. Titled "Miyazaki Art Show," this weekend show featured artworks by over 100 artists throughout the world, celebrating the films of the acclaimed director.

The description from Spoke Art website, "Including a diverse array of original painting, sculpture and limited edition prints, the Miyazaki Art Show offers each artists' perspective and interpretation of beloved characters and themes throughout Miyazaki's films. Imbued with the legendary director's sense of adventure, deep reverence for nature and strong female characters, this dynamic exhibition is not to be missed."

Unfortunately, this exhibition ran only during this past weekend, September 29 to October 1. By all accounts, the show was a success, as most items were sold. Prices for artworks ranged from as little as $25.00 to $1,600.00. More artworks will be added to the Spoke Art website in the coming days.

Here are a few select pieces from the Miyazaki Art Show. You can see more of the artworks on the gallery website here and here. Be sure to send a thank you to the gallery and encourage more Ghibli exhibitions.

Artist Spotlight: Mononoke Hime by Michael Tunk

This absolutely fantastic collage piece titled "Mononoke Hime" was created by California-based artist Michael Tunk. His paintings employ classical surrealism with a pop art sensibility that is also reminiscent of underground punk zine culture.

According to his website bio, "Michael Tunk takes photographs and magazines from the 1800's-1980's and re-contextualizes them into something beautiful. He takes refused detritus and spins a yarn of gold. He takes the weight from a hoarders home and fixes it into aesthetic candy. His pieces are never photoshopped, he uses only Xacto blades and what’s left of the bones in his wrists."

I enjoy the way this collage invokes a sense of mystery about this world, and a slight sense of dread as well. We are not walking into another one of Walt Disney's enchanted forests, but a strange and mysterious land where discovery and danger lie around every turn. Everything is wildly colorful, more than a little psychedelic, invoking all its dreamlike implications. Dali and Warhol would be proud.

Please visit Tunk's website to see samples of his work, and send him a note with your thanks.

Artist Spotlight: Spirited Away by Holly C Brown

Today's artist spotlight is a terrific Spirited Away illustration, drawn in the style of woodcut carvings. We find highlights from many of our favorite scenes and characters from the movie.

This is very fresh and inventive. I enjoy the comic book designs and the flow of the motions on the page. I'd like to see more of the Studio Ghibli films included as part of a series.

You can find more artwork on the artist's website.

Artist Spotlight: Kiki and Ursula by Madi Hodges

Today's artist spotlight is an amazingly talented artist and animator at Wild Canary Animation named Madi Hodges. I really love the bold colors in the trees and the cabin. Kiki and Ursula are both cheerful with their bird friends, and brushwork shows a great variety throughout the frame. You can tell an animation professional created this piece. Terrific!

You can follow Madi Hodges' Pinterest page for more examples of her excellent work. Ask her to create more Ghibli paintings!

Artist Spotlight: Howl by Shikon Kiara

Today's artist spotlight features a wonderfully colorful and expressionist painting of Howl, the romantic lead in Hayao Miyazaki's 2004 movie Howl's Moving Castle. Very dynamic with skillful use of color, employing just enough negative space to allow the painting to breathe. Howl's pose is interesting; either he is falling from above, or trying to break free from the confines of his canvas.

Kudos to artist Shikon Kiara for this illustration, which was discovered on Fanpop and Pinterest. I could not find an artist's site, however. Hopefully, there are more illustrations by this artist to share with the world.

Artist Spotlight: Hayao Miyazaki by Sharm Murugiah

This terrific illustration of Hayao Miyazaki was created by artist Sharm Murugiah from the UK. You can visit his Facebook page to see more examples of his work. I like this illustration because it shows the director in a serious, thoughtful pose. Most people draw Miyazaki-san with big smiles and grins, always happy and cheerful. I always found him to be far more moody and glum than the image of a "Japanese Walt Disney." That label never stuck, and says far more about Americans than the director.

To Miyazaki, especially in his later years, his stories are a respite from the horrors of the world. In his dreams lie the reservoir of his hopes for humanity, pushing back against despair and darkness. And it is this inner conflict that makes his Studio Ghibli movies so fascinating. This illustration seems to capture some of that. Kudos to Murugiah for his work.