Entry for a UK art competition, based on Miyazaki's Oscar-winning film Spirited Away. I held back on showing this before as I was waiting to see what the competion results might be... but it's all gone deathly silent and I'm wondering if I'm ever going to hear anything else about it now. Since I'm tired of waiting for news and now it's the New Year, I figured now is as good a time as any to put this up. I put a lot of effort into this piece. A tribute to Miyazaki-san deserves the best, so I gave this my best shot (even though I ended up doing it within a tight schedule).
What I wanted to achieve with this pic to make it stand out was to capture the true feel of the characters within the linework, yet to add an extra dimension and my own personal twist with the painterly CG colouring. I don't like to copy and imitate the work of other people, but in instances like this I like to show my appreciation for great work like Miyazaki's - by trying to capture some of the essence of his work whilst showing how I've personally been inspired by it (and not just to copy it).
Before I produced this picture, I watched Spirited Away multiple times, tried to draw the characters from memory and then studied stills of them as well. I made further character sketches, trying to refer to reference materials as little as possible as time went on, until I reached my final composition for this piece. I hope people enjoy looking at this picture as much as I have enjoyed completing it... and that if any of you are looking at this and haven't seen the film, I hope it encourages you to check it out! You won't be disappointed. ^_^