Week 11 — Artist OTW — Student Choice
Artist: Hayao Miyazaki
Media: Watercolor
Website: https://www.studioghibli.com.au/
Instagram: N/A
About the Artist
Hayao Miyazaki is a renowned Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. He was born in Bunkyō ward of Tokyo and expressed an interest in manga and animation from an early age. All of his works revolve around the idea of nature and the magic it brings. As years go by and we see humans industrialize our world, and we find less and less of nature around us start to disappear. Miyazaki capitalizes on this by creating imaginative worlds where the audience can find an appreciation and beauty of nature. His interests include “humanity’s relationship with nature and technology, the wholesomeness of natural and traditional patterns of living, the importance of art and craftsmanship, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic in a violent world”. He also takes interest in creating protagonists that are often “strong girls or young women” or “morally ambiguous antagonists with redeeming qualities”.
Formal Analysis
Since Hayao Miyazaki works with watercolor as his medium, a lot of his works come out really soft, with lines that are both straight and curvy to define more detail. The colors are typically bright and vivid with an endless amount of color choice. The background is typically a little more blurry, and the characters of items of importance are outlined for more detail. He works on animation, so a lot of the work he does is frame by frame. The consistency on each frame is millimeters of a difference, which allows the film, when put together, to be very smooth. The characters move with ease and it looks so natural. From facial expressions and body movement to the movement of fabric, all of his work looks at how it would in real life.
Content Analysis
Hayao Miyazaki is trying to bring out the feeling of being a young child into the stories he tells. There is something about youth that you shouldn’t ever let go of and that is something he is trying to express in his works. Often times, once we reach the age of becoming an adult, we are expected to drop our dreamlike mentalities and to be serious about everything we do. However, watching all of the works that he has done, it sparks a reminder to never lose that bit of youth that you had growing up and to always stay curious, explore new things, and love those around you. Other than that, he really wants to bring attention to the beauty of nature and protecting it humans destroying it for their own benefits.
Synthesis / My Experience
Miyazaki’s work really resonates with me because I feel that our current world too focused on materialistic things and that we aren’t aware of the outside world anymore or how beautiful nature is. We constantly cut down forests and ruin ecosystems to accommodate our supply and demand numbers. I also believe that as I grow up, I shouldn’t stop being the kid that I am or drop the things that I enjoy or take interest in. The creativeness that is put into his work is brilliant, and I want to stay creative like that for as long as I am alive.
