> 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.

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.

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...

I like to program this way too. And make music this way. And build things this way. The fewest tools with sufficient utility.

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.

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!

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).

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.

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.

I recently picked up Starting Point and Turning Point. I would recommend them to anyone interested in learning more about this topic.

Just spend 30 seconds on writing a prompt in to midjourney