10 ms·

How to Paint Like Hayao Miyazaki

233 points by zdw 4y ago

marginalia_nu 4y ago
If you enjoy Miyazaki-related things, you may also enjoy Miyazaki being awkward around Akira Kurosawa. http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosawa_p1.html http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosaw... http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosawa_p2.html http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosaw...
- AdmiralAsshat 4y ago
  People are delightfully awkward around their heroes. Your hero probably had their own hero, too.
- onemoresoop 4y ago
  Miyazaki is a humble person. Humility looks like awkwardness from a distance. Just saying...
  - thrillgore 4y ago
    Except if you're demoing machine learning AI in front of him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0K3lWKRc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0K3lWKRc
    - spookybones 4y ago
      That was so funny that it felt scripted.
    - lelandfe 4y ago
      Hey John Henry, what do you make of this steam drill?
    - slim 4y ago
      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 4y ago
        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.
      - thrillgore 4y ago
        I mean if you showed me that saying that in a couple thousand generations it will beat a team of animators or Mocap performers at a walk cycle, I'd tell you to get lost and roll the dice on my animators. Miyazaki has no mercy. He also called his son's first film crap, again I'd be less blunt about it but I have to agree. I saw Earwig and the Witch. Holy crap its bad.
  - kupopuffs 4y ago
    The two do not seem so distinct tbh
cinericius 4y ago
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.
- cjohnson318 4y ago
  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-watercolor/ https://connor-johnson.com/2017/06/07/getting-started-with-w...
  - djsavvy 4y ago
    This is great, thanks for sharing!
- LegitShady 4y ago
  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.
mttjj 4y ago
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.
- rahimnathwani 4y ago
  I opened a couple of Ghibli movies on the HBO Max app just now, and the only audio and subtitle options were English.
  - mttjj 4y ago
    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 4y ago
      Thanks for the tip! https://i.imgur.com/nuRLkcH.png 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 4y ago
agentultra 4y ago
I like to program this way too. And make music this way. And build things this way. The fewest tools with sufficient utility.
- Pamar 4y ago
  You'll find this interesing (if you missed it on HN): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23974878 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23974878
  - ArcMex 4y ago
    Thank you for sharing!
  - Gerard0 4y ago
    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!
eludwig 4y ago
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!
munificent 4y ago
> 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 4y ago
  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 4y ago
    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.
  - hkab 4y ago
    That's right. As time go by, I care more about functionality. I didn't wasting time on gnome-look when I install a fresh Ubuntu like before.
ArcMex 4y ago
I recently picked up Starting Point and Turning Point. I would recommend them to anyone interested in learning more about this topic.
MrGilbert 4y ago
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 4y ago
  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).
- Aeolun 4y ago
  On the other hand, you still have a large selection to choose from. Having started earlier in life, I’ve worked my way through all the best ones, and now I’m stuck waiting for great shows to come out in the flood of mediocre work.
- monetus 4y ago
  Just thought I'd recommend ergo proxy as a delightful watch.
aleksiy123 4y ago
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 4y ago
  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-films/ https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/hayao-miyazaki-25-favourite-fil...
pmoriarty 4y ago
Just spend 30 seconds on writing a prompt in to midjourney
codazoda 4y ago
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.

233 points by zdw 4y ago

If you enjoy Miyazaki-related things, you may also enjoy Miyazaki being awkward around Akira Kurosawa. http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosawa_p1.html http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosaw... http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosawa_p2.html http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_kurosaw...

AdmiralAsshat 4y ago
People are delightfully awkward around their heroes. Your hero probably had their own hero, too.
onemoresoop 4y ago
Miyazaki is a humble person. Humility looks like awkwardness from a distance. Just saying...
- thrillgore 4y ago
  Except if you're demoing machine learning AI in front of him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0K3lWKRc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0K3lWKRc
  - spookybones 4y ago
    That was so funny that it felt scripted.
  - lelandfe 4y ago
    Hey John Henry, what do you make of this steam drill?
  - slim 4y ago
    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 4y ago
      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.
    - thrillgore 4y ago
      I mean if you showed me that saying that in a couple thousand generations it will beat a team of animators or Mocap performers at a walk cycle, I'd tell you to get lost and roll the dice on my animators. Miyazaki has no mercy. He also called his son's first film crap, again I'd be less blunt about it but I have to agree. I saw Earwig and the Witch. Holy crap its bad.
- kupopuffs 4y ago
  The two do not seem so distinct tbh

cinericius 4y ago

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.

cjohnson318 4y ago
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-watercolor/ https://connor-johnson.com/2017/06/07/getting-started-with-w...
- djsavvy 4y ago
  This is great, thanks for sharing!
LegitShady 4y ago
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.

mttjj 4y ago

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.

rahimnathwani 4y ago
I opened a couple of Ghibli movies on the HBO Max app just now, and the only audio and subtitle options were English.
- mttjj 4y ago
  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 4y ago
    Thanks for the tip! https://i.imgur.com/nuRLkcH.png 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 4y ago

agentultra 4y ago

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

Pamar 4y ago
You'll find this interesing (if you missed it on HN): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23974878 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23974878
- ArcMex 4y ago
  Thank you for sharing!
- Gerard0 4y ago
  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!

eludwig 4y ago

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!

munificent 4y ago

> 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 4y ago
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 4y ago
  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.
- hkab 4y ago
  That's right. As time go by, I care more about functionality. I didn't wasting time on gnome-look when I install a fresh Ubuntu like before.

ArcMex 4y ago

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

MrGilbert 4y ago

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 4y ago
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).
Aeolun 4y ago
On the other hand, you still have a large selection to choose from. Having started earlier in life, I’ve worked my way through all the best ones, and now I’m stuck waiting for great shows to come out in the flood of mediocre work.
monetus 4y ago
Just thought I'd recommend ergo proxy as a delightful watch.

aleksiy123 4y ago

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 4y ago
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-films/ https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/hayao-miyazaki-25-favourite-fil...

pmoriarty 4y ago

Just spend 30 seconds on writing a prompt in to midjourney

codazoda 4y ago

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.