Hello everyone, ^_^

How are you? Are you doing well? I sure hope that you are! So, it's been a little while since I've uploaded a new deviation huh? But not too too long I suppose. ^_^; <Sigh>.... These things do take time I guess, especially with so little time to work on them nowadays. But anyways.... So here it is; my newest piece based on the film "Howl's Moving Castle."

To be completely honest with all of you, I haven't been a HUGE fan of the films made by Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli...... Not to say that I didn't like them mind you! On the contrary!! I certainly found them VERY imaginative, quite lavish and even sweet, but I can't say that I thoroughly enjoyed them (as opposed to those few anime titles that I TRULY loved) other than watching each of the films for curiousity's sake and feeling satisfied and entertained with the first viewing or two. I did like Kiki's Delivery Service very much, and I enjoyed Spirited Away also. I sort of liked Princess Mononoke but I honestly I found Howl's Moving Castle to be my most favorite of them all so far!

Hmm.... What can I say? Perhaps I liked Howl's Moving castle because unlike most of these films, it dealt with some more adult themes and issues. I also loved how intricate and detailed the animation was, and I of course adored the relationship between Howl and Sophie, hence the reason I've painted this piece.

I actually saw the film sometime last spring and enjoyed it VERY much; so much so that I watched it several times! I had actually wanted to see it in theaters as it was released on my birthday of 2005 (June 10th) but I never had the opportunity, sadly. Even so I was quite pleased that I eventually managed to check it out when it was released on DVD! Ah, what a cute film it was! Though a bit confusing at times, I truly do have the highest regard for it! ^_^

As stated, I loved the coupling of Howl and Sophie so I specifically wanted to paint a piece depicting them. I had actually started this in sketch form around the time that I'd seen the film, back in April or so but I never managed to finish it until recently. When I did find the sketch again, I decided to go with it full force as I thought it had potential to be a nice piece in the end. Granted I feel that the concept I've used here is quite similar to some of my previous works, I couldn't help myself, especially given some of the aspects of the film.

In one part of the film, Howl shows Sophie his beautiful flower garden, or perhaps I should saw meadow; a vast landscape covered with blossoms; all of which was simply breath-taking! Though I have decpicted couples together in open fields in the past, given how lovely the landscape was in this movie in particular, I couldn't help but depict part of it in my image too. ^_^ I didn't quite have accurate reference other than a few screen shots from the film but I like to think the the background turned out quite nice anyhow.

As for the coupling of Howl and Sophie themselves, I must admit that I strayed a bit from the time line of the film in terms of their appearances. In terms of Howl, I personally preferred him as a blond, which is how he appeared in the first half of the film, most notably when he first approached Sophie, as I have him in my image. Sophie on the other hand appears as she does very late in the film in my painting; now with gray/silver hair due to the curse that was placed upon her. I also decided to use the blue dress that she wore for two reasons; one, because I thought the color looked much nicer on her than the green dress she wore earlier in the film, and two, I thought even if I had considered using the green, there would have been far too much of the color green given the mostly green lanscape. Again, perhaps the piece is not quite accurate in the respect of the chararacters and the way they look, but I thought that I would go on ahead and take liberties here.

As for the sheets/pillow that Sophie is lying on., very briefly in the film, Sophie tended to Howl as he rested in his bedroom after some....uh...emotional trauma. As he lay in bed, the audience gets a glimpse of some rather decorative sheets and pillows around him. Given that I like patterns and such, I thought that I would borrow them for the sake of my image. Again, I only had a few small screen shots as reference but I think they more or less appeared as they do in my painting.

As always this piece was painted using opague water color. Thanks for looking everyone! ^_^