Howl's Moving Castle

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I am a huge fan of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's works. I had this movie added somewhere in the depths of my Netflix queue, but I was patient to wait the fifty movies or so until it was time to watch it. My boyfriend was able to peak my interest to the point I moved the movie to the top of my list. I instantly fell in the love with it and also read the book it was based off of by Diana Wynne Jones. I cannot help but love the movie more than the book, although the book was still wonderful. The plot is much more complex and there are many additional characters that do not appear in the movie (although a few names are mentioned briefly). Calcifer was close to being my favorite character, but after watching the film a few more times, I couldn't help but fanboy over Howl. I am utterly jealous at how silky his hair is. *laughs* I was also able to get one of my friends addicted to the movie as well. I told her I had in mind a picture of Howl and Calcifer I wanted to draw, and she fiercely insisted I draw it. It took a weekend to sketch out the idea while using up another large stack of paper, and I finally found time to color it on Photoshop during the Labor Day weekend and several weekends afterwards. I looked up a large handful of coloring tutorials for the fire and wings. I plan on watching all seven Miyazaki movies and created a mini poster for each, similar to this one for Howl's Moving Castle. I have already seen four of the seven, so I am watching some of the ones I have already seen. Next is Spirited Away. This piece is dedicated to my boyfriend who inspired me to finally watch this beautiful film.
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I learned a new outlining technique in my drawing class that I wanted to try out. I quickly found it had its pros and cons. A pro was it made the line art look magnificent and created interesting lines. The cons were the graphite pencil I used smeared and created dust across my picture. I should have used a regular #2 pencil instead. Also, the lines are rather grainy although I did my best to fix that in Photoshop. However, I ran into a mishap shortly after fixing the line art. I started coloring the picture and realized I could not go about coloring it the same way I normally do. Calcifer was causing me some difficulty because Howl's fingers were in front of him while everything else was a haze behind him. The way I set up the layers would not allow me to do this, so I had to start from the beginning after I had all the base colors done. *sobs* I wasted an entire day on it, but it made me more determined to get it right the second time around. Thankfully said time around shocked me. This is my seventh completed picture in Photoshop that I've ever created, and instead of laying out all the base colors like I usually do, I picked one section (the hair, for example) and shaded and highlighted it until it was completed and I was able to move on. I started with Calcifer, who turned out quite lovely. When I finished Howl's face, I was utterly blown away at how I had shaded it. I had slapped on sections of shadows before working with them, not really paying much attention to what I was doing. The end result was baffling, and I am beyond pleased. This turned out far better than I ever imagined. *grins* I had a lot of trouble with his hair at first and I still do not like the hand he has by his side, but I am thrilled by the foreshortening I used with his outstretched hand and the rest of the coloring. I also had a little trouble with the background. I wanted the castle as the background image but I did not want to draw it, so I fumbled with some pictures I found on Google before arranging the background as is. His wings were a nightmare. I could not color the feathers correctly so I struggled with the shading and had to start over countless times. I also struggled with the clothing. His shirt turned out perfectly, but I started getting lazy on his jacket. I was slacking with the light source so I had to give myself a week's break before returning to it and finishing it. At last, it is finished after three or more weeks. I have you to thank, Corey. *smiles*
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Drawn August 24, '08.
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Pencil and Photoshop 7.
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Picture (C) Alice Falling; Characters (C) Diana Wynne Jones, Studio Ghibli, and Hayao Miyazaki