[HN Gopher] How to Paint Like Hayao Miyazaki
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How to Paint Like Hayao Miyazaki
Author : zdw
Score : 160 points
Date : 2023-02-03 13:34 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (animationobsessive.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (animationobsessive.substack.com)
| cinericius wrote:
| I love the main part of the foldout. I have no interest in art or
| watercolour painting but it really makes me want to give it a go.
| LegitShady wrote:
| You can get some relatively inexpensive watercolour paper and
| paints and give it a go. Find some youtube videos to get you
| started on different techniques.
|
| But also be aware that watercolour painting is a subset of art
| in general. If you don't know anything about line, value,
| shape, perspective, rendering, drawing people and things,
| composition and layout, etc, you're unlikely to suddenly
| develop that by playing with watercolour paints.
|
| That doesn't mean you can't play with watercolour paints, but
| if you haven't been interested in drawing with a pencil you're
| unlikely to suddenly develop a mastery of the basics while also
| learning a water based media, so manage expectations.
|
| So unlike the other person who replied, I wouldn't recommend
| investing heavily at the outset. You can get a sakura koi field
| kit for $30 (and use what colors are in there) and a canson
| watercolor paper pad for pretty cheap and go to town seeing if
| its something you enjoy, before spending a lot of money on
| paint tubes you might never use if you find it not to your
| liking.
|
| Like anything art, the primary thing that determines skill is
| how much effort you put into practicing and developing that
| skill. Start with the goal of enjoying yourself rather than
| imagining turning out masterpieces like miyazaki.
| cjohnson318 wrote:
| Good paints are really worth it, and a little bit goes a long
| way, but buying all your paints at once can get expensive. I'd
| recommend quinacridone rose, hansa yellow medium, and phthalo
| blue green shade, and phthalo green blue shade. This is the
| most economical way to get a full gamut of colors. These four
| colors all work very well together and can make vibrant mixes
| all around the color wheel. If you need a stop-sign red, just
| mix the rose with a little yellow. If you need a realistic
| green, mix yellow and the green with a little rose to make it
| look more natural.
|
| If I had to add a few more colors they would be neutral tint,
| ultramarine blue, transparent pyrole orange, new gamboge, burnt
| sienna, raw sienna, and cerulean chromium.
|
| I have more info, and links to recommended materials here.
| (There's no ads, and I'm not making money off of anything.)
| https://connor-johnson.com/2017/06/07/getting-started-with-w...
| djsavvy wrote:
| This is great, thanks for sharing!
| aleksiy123 wrote:
| Maybe not the best place to ask but I recently visited the Ghibli
| Museum (which was awesome highly recommend). In one of the rooms
| set up as a workspace exhibition there where drawings and notes
| displayed on the wall. Some of these contained handwritten
| Russian notes. As well as a hand drawn map of medieval Moscow.
| There where some other things like a drawing of ship which looked
| inspired by Battleship Potemkin. I assume these where used as
| references for some of their movies. Does anyone know if Miyazaki
| or any of the other animators could read and write Russian? I
| couldn't find any information online apart from Miyazaki being
| inspired by The Snow Queen (Snezhnaya Koroleva) (1957).
| mitthrowaway2 wrote:
| I'm not sure if he could read Russian, but in addition to the
| _Snow Queen_ by Lev Atamanov, Miyazaki frequently cites Soviet
| animator Yuri Norstein as a major influence, and lists two of
| his films ( _Hedgehog in the Fog_ , and _Tale of Tales_ ) as
| among his favourites of all time.[1] Several of his movies do
| have shots that seem strongly reminiscent of the _Battleship
| Potemkin_ so I 'd be surprised if that film wasn't an influence
| as well, although I don't know of a source that states it.
|
| [1] https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/hayao-miyazaki-25-favourite-
| fil...
| pmoriarty wrote:
| Just spend 30 seconds on writing a prompt in to midjourney
| codazoda wrote:
| I had a Boogie Board once that saved to SD. The pencil had a bug
| in it that caused the point to randomly bounce about. I drew a
| few "sloppy" images with it and then got a replacement pencil.
| The replacement did not produce sketches with nearly the same
| character and I grew to miss the defective pencil.
| ArcMex wrote:
| I recently picked up Starting Point and Turning Point. I would
| recommend them to anyone interested in learning more about this
| topic.
| eludwig wrote:
| There was, until recently (I'm pretty sure it's gone now), a
| Ghibli/Miyazaki exhibit at the new AMPAS museum in LA. It was an
| amazing show. They had many of Miyazaki's original watercolors
| there and they were so, so good.
|
| The part missing from the "paint like Miyazaki" instructions is
| the part where you study and draw for 60 years! He has the touch
| of a master, both delicate and confident in the way of, say,
| Ingres and Watteau drawings. Much different subject matters,
| obviously, but it's the feel I'm talking about. Absolutely
| beautiful. And he is a master watercolorist, which itself takes a
| long time to learn.
|
| This is not to dissuade anyone from picking up these things. Just
| please don't expect too much too soon!
| MrGilbert wrote:
| I'm in my mid-thirties. 2022, after watching the Cyberpunk Anime
| (which I liked), I watched my first ,,real" animes, ,,A silent
| voice" and ,,In this corner of the world".
|
| I regret that I didn't get into animes earlier in my life.
| mitthrowaway2 wrote:
| There's no time like the present! I know some people who got
| hooked on anime in their '60s and up. There's a lot of
| greatness, and a lot of garbage, so it's like a never-ending
| treasure hunt!
|
| (If you liked those, you'll probably like most of the Studio
| Ghibli catalogue, as well as _Wolf Children_ ).
| agentultra wrote:
| I like to program this way too. And make music this way. And
| build things this way. The fewest tools with sufficient utility.
| Pamar wrote:
| You'll find this interesing (if you missed it on HN):
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23974878
| ArcMex wrote:
| Thank you for sharing!
| Gerard0 wrote:
| Thanks! I saw the headline back then but didn't get my
| attention and didn't open it. So glad you brought it back
| now!
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| If you enjoy Miyazaki-related things, you may also enjoy Miyazaki
| being awkward around Akira Kurosawa.
|
| http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosaw...
|
| http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosaw...
| onemoresoop wrote:
| Miyazaki is a humble person. Humility looks like awkwardness
| from a distance. Just saying...
| thrillgore wrote:
| Except if you're demoing machine learning AI in front of him.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0K3lWKRc
| lelandfe wrote:
| Hey John Henry, what do you make of this steam drill?
| slim wrote:
| I think he felt offended because the young guys probably
| think they made a good imitation of some dark slimy
| creatures featuring in his movies. So he makes a point of
| telling them that those creatures move that way because
| they are suffering whereas the animations they showed him
| are random
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| I'm not sure it was that they were random (I doubt he
| understands RL at that level) he was more offended
| because as he said "it was in insult to life" and an
| insult to his disabled friend who has to live with the
| pain of disability. Putting myself into his mindset or
| the mindset of my father who is the same age I guess I
| would probably see it as some kind of cruel experiment as
| well. I mean, obviously those young guys suffered some
| embarassment there in that exchange (just look at their
| faces) as they revere Miyazaki, but trying to put myself
| in the mindset of someone who is from the era he is from,
| what he said makes some sense. His last statement that we
| humans are losing faith in ourselves is poignant.
| spookybones wrote:
| That was so funny that it felt scripted.
| kupopuffs wrote:
| The two do not seem so distinct tbh
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| People are delightfully awkward around their heroes. Your hero
| probably had their own hero, too.
| munificent wrote:
| _> What Miyazaki makes clear throughout the guide is that he is,
| proudly, a cheapskate who isn't fussy about tools. He looks for
| reliability and convenience. His pitch for Holbein paints is just
| that they're "reasonably priced and a little goes a long way."_
|
| _> In his notes, Miyazaki purposely leans into sounding old and
| stuck in his ways. He rants about how he's painted with nothing
| else for 40 years, how easy and cost-effective his tools are --
| and then he undermines himself by suggesting that, really, this
| is all he knows how to do._
|
| There's a deeper truth which is easy to overlook here.
|
| If you want to get good at some creative pursuit, you have to put
| a lot of time, attention, and decision making effort into the
| skill. All of those are finite resources.
|
| It's _really_ easy to squander an unbelievable amount of time and
| effort on _choosing gear_. Doing that is time _not_ spent
| mastering the craft. You might get really good at picking shit
| out, but you won 't get good at painting, or poetry, or song-
| writing, or whatever.
|
| This is why so many successful artists seem stuck in their ways
| or dismissive of gear, or, conversely, fetishize certain gear.
| Those are all mental techniques to minimize the effort they spend
| on picking stuff so that they can focus that effort on creating.
| MrGilbert wrote:
| I would go as far and extend that to almost every profession.
|
| I mean, when I started programming, I could spend ours choosing
| the right library, tools, or whatever.
|
| But nowadays, when I have an idea, I stick to C# and Visual
| Studio. Because that's the language i'm familiar with for over
| a decade now. Which doesn't mean I don't look right and left -
| but still, I don't want to think about my tooling.
| danielvaughn wrote:
| Same. Although when I start a new project, I still spend
| hours shopping for the latest and greatest
| frameworks/libraries/tools that I haven't had a chance to use
| yet. I can't help it lol.
| mttjj wrote:
| Having never seen any Studio Ghibli films before, I watched all
| of them in release order last month, Jan 2023. I'm so glad I did.
| With few exceptions, the films are masterpieces of cinema, not
| just animation. Nearly any single frame from nearly any of the
| films would make gorgeous wall art.
|
| I'd recommend anyone who is remotely interested in animation,
| Japanese films, or films in general to check them out. All but 2
| (for licensing reasons) are available to stream on HBO Max. I
| believe they have both subbed and dubbed versions, though I
| preferred to watch with subs.
| test1235 wrote:
| Did any of them stand out to you in particular? Which was your
| favourite(s)?
|
| Any you didn't like?
| mttjj wrote:
| My favorites were probably "Grave of the Fireflies" (warning:
| it's heavy and devastating), "Pom Poko" (very funny), "From
| Up on Poppy Hill", "Arrietty" to name a few. The fantasy-
| centered films are good, but my personal taste tends to lean
| towards the slice-of-life/coming-of-age films so that's why
| those were some of my favorites.
|
| The only truly "bad" movie of the bunch is their latest from
| 2020: "Earwig and the Witch". It's computer generated instead
| of hand-drawn but it looks like a computer generated film
| from the early '90s. Just ugly and uninspired. And the story
| was not good. It had promise but did absolutely nothing with
| it. Very disappointing film. Thankfully, it looks like their
| next release (summer 2023) will be back to the hand-drawn
| style.
| antoniuschan99 wrote:
| Also check out 10 years with Hayao Miyazaki!
| kldavis4 wrote:
| fwiw, Earwig and the Witch, while produced by Studio
| Ghibli, was not a Hayao Miyazaki film (it was directed by
| his son) and was critically panned. Definitely one to skip.
| ddoolin wrote:
| And the elder Miyazaki walked out during the premier of
| his son's first feature film in an apparent expression of
| disgust at his son's creation. Not exactly a model
| father.
| toyg wrote:
| Old Hayao was not a good father, even more so for Western
| standards. He dragged his son into his work, and then
| effectively threw him under the bus when it became clear
| he was not going to be particularly good at it. From the
| outside, it looks like a classic case of a _capostipite_
| , the upstart who builds a family fortune and is then
| disgusted at the fact that his son is of a different
| breed.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| Looking at it from the elder Miyazaki's perspective:
| Seeing that disaster of a film and realizing that your
| name was going to be associated with it forever after you
| spent your entire working life establishing a very high
| standard was probably a very difficult thing to endure.
| Shared404 wrote:
| As much as I love his films and their stories/values, the
| elder Miyazaki is definitely not the greatest of people.
|
| He was one of the first instances I can think of where I
| came to understand "don't meet your heroes".
|
| Edit: Never met him in person. Mostly meant 'meet' in a
| figurative sense.
| jfax wrote:
| Earwig and the Witch was a really fun movie to watch back
| when the Gamestop short squeeze was in the news. It's a
| film about overcoming cruelty and injustice through a
| hacker mindset, rather than resolving conflict through
| cathartic resistance. Goro in an interview said:
|
| > "Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and Yoshiyuki Tomino, are,
| in a manner of speaking, the first generation of those who
| experienced the war, who saw a radical change in values.
| Their opposition to authority and violence began from a
| certain kind of resistance, and they came together to make
| something, to start building something new. I think it's a
| kind of revolutionary mindset. But it's not possible for
| those of us who were born amid the period of economic
| development to possess that. The answer I've come to now,
| which made me think while making movies, is found in
| Earwig."
|
| > "There's dubious stuff going on across the world, and
| there's no rosy future waiting after an upheaval. And this
| state of affairs will probably continue," Goro says. "If
| people rose up democratically against violence, would
| stable peace eventuate? It's a very difficult situation. I
| get the feeling that an ending with catharsis isn't
| something you should portray without careful consideration.
| At the same time, we need some kind of fantasy to live
| mentally enriched. We realized the time has come to decide
| on where to put emphasis."
| [deleted]
| FpUser wrote:
| Yes, for the most part Studio Ghibli's art is insanely
| beautiful.
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| I opened a couple of Ghibli movies on the HBO Max app just now,
| and the only audio and subtitle options were English.
| mttjj wrote:
| I think HBO Max is weird in that you have to pick the options
| before you start the movie. I found I couldn't change
| languages from the audio track or subtitles options while the
| movie was playing. But I can 100% confirm that I watched all
| of the movies on HBO Max in Japanese audio with English
| subtitles. AppleTV 4K.
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| Thanks for the tip!
|
| https://i.imgur.com/nuRLkcH.png
|
| The only way I can find to switch the audio track is by
| clicking the word 'English' on the description page
| (screenshot above), before hitting 'play'. This is really
| confusing because:
|
| 1. There's an option to change the language track once
| you're playing the movie, but it doesn't show the other
| option.
|
| 2. When you click that button, there's a helpful
| notification saying you can choose language in 'settings'
| (which isn't the case!).
|
| 3. The icon next to where it says 'ENGLISH' looks like a
| speech bubble, which to me indicates 'subtitles'.
|
| 4. I have to click the word 'ENGLISH' to switch to
| Japanese!
| mttjj wrote:
| Ah yes, I remember doing this dance at the beginning of
| January. As you've discovered, there are about two dozen
| UX violations with this procedure. Thankfully, I only had
| to do this once; all the rest of the films played in
| Japanese by default from then on.
| poulpy123 wrote:
| Why is it a problem?
| nicoburns wrote:
| The original versions of the films have Japanese audio, and
| you're missing out on that if you watch them in english.
| HideousKojima wrote:
| Also, at least on the Disney blu-ray releases, there were
| some notable differences between the English dub and the
| English subtitles. The most glaring one I ever saw was in
| Porco Rosso when Curtis says he's from Alabama in the
| subtitles but from Texas in the dub. The Japanese voice
| acting is also usually way superior, even though they
| hire quality actors for the dubs.
|
| For example, Gillian Anderson is a great actress but she
| doesn't do the character of Moro (in Princess Mononoke)
| justice, especially compared to the Japanese VA (Akihiro
| Miwa).
|
| See their voices compared at 4:19
| https://youtu.be/1X4RWYsDs8A
| js2 wrote:
| Complete tangent:
|
| Last year I watched _Women on the Verge of a Nervous
| Breakdown_ (1988), a fairly amusing Spanish farce
| (Almodovar, so, you know). In the movie some of the
| characters play voice actors dubbing an American movie to
| Spanish and I wondered, what movie is that?
|
| The movie they were dubbing is _Johnny Guitar_ (1954).
| Which is how I came to discover a film that 's now well
| in my top 10.
| mcphage wrote:
| > Also, at least on the Disney blu-ray releases, there
| were some notable differences between the English dub and
| the English subtitles.
|
| Some or all of them have 2 different English subtitle
| tracks -- "English" and "English for the Hearing
| Impaired". For reasons I don't understand in the
| slightest, they sometimes differ. English for the Hearing
| Impaired is the one that matches the English Dub.
| slim wrote:
| Dubbing imposes constraints on translation, you have to
| chose words that look alike when lip syncing. Sometimes
| dubbing is more like a creative translation, different
| from original text
| TremendousJudge wrote:
| afaik the English dub literally changes the ending of
| Kiki's Delivery Service
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| There are a lot of differences between the English and
| Japanese audio in Kiki. For instance, there are more
| silent periods in the original Japanese version, whereas
| in the (American) English version they almost
| stereotypically cannot stop talking. So it seems there
| was some cultural adaptation beyond simple translation.
| SECProto wrote:
| > There are a lot of difference between the English and
| Japanese audio in Kiki
|
| Definitely. Jiji (the cat) has a totally different
| character if you listen to the dub vs the original
| Japanese. One of the few instances where I prefer the
| dub... but I think it's just because I watched it that
| way as a child. This article [1] is convincing me to go
| back and give the Japanese audio another try.
|
| [1] https://www.otaquest.com/anime-kikis-delivery-
| service/
| mcphage wrote:
| Another layer for this--Kiki's Delivery Service was
| originally a book series. As far as I am aware, only the
| first was ever translated into English, and it was
| translated twice. The second time somewhat recently, and
| should still be easy to find. There are quite a lot of
| differences between the two, and you can really see how
| Miyazaki focused the plot of the movie on what he
| considered the most important aspect. But in the books,
| Kiki never loses her ability to converse with Jiji (at
| least not by the end of the first book; I don't know what
| happens in later books).
|
| Anyway: if you like the movie, I would recommend tracking
| down the book. Some of the movie's scenes are lifted
| directly, but (as always) there's scenes I would have
| loved to see show up in the movie that didn't.
| LastMuel wrote:
| > One of the few instances where I prefer the dub...
|
| Phil really does a great job.
| mttjj wrote:
| I think if you watch Pom Poko[1] with the dub, you're
| watching a completely different movie.
|
| > Prominent scrotums are an integral part of tanuki
| folklore, and they are shown and referred to throughout
| the film, and also used frequently in their shape-
| shifting. This remains unchanged in the DVD release,
| though the English dub (but not the subtitles) refers to
| them as "raccoon pouches".
|
| [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pom_Poko
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| I would add though, that if you aren't into subtitled
| movies the dubs are still perfectly serviceable and I'd
| still strongly recommend watching them.
|
| Also despite some of the issues with earlier dubs, some
| of the later ones are good in their own ways. In the case
| of Howl's Moving Castle, I prefer the dub by a large
| margin, Billy Crystal was especially good.
| thot_experiment wrote:
| one notable aspect is the lack of silence in the English
| dubs, the originals use it to great effect but the English
| dubs always tend to have background music inserted in
|
| it doesn't make it unwatchable by any means but the vibe is
| no longer as impeccable
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