Study of Nausicaa - The Worm-handlers

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was Hayao Miyazaki's first big anime film.  It is based on a multi volume manga that he spent over 13 years working on.  The work was first released in serial chapter installments (about 8 chapters a year)  in Animage magazine.  After about two years (1982 to 1983) and 16 chapters the popularity of the manga helped him decide to make an anime film and get financial backing to do so.  After Nausicaa was released in 1984 he returned to working on the manga off and on until 1994 when he finished chapter 59, the finale.  He to long breaks to work on four other major anime: Castle in the Sky, Tortoru, Kiki, and Porco Rosso.  These 59 chapters were divided into 7 volumes.

Someone donated to the local library all seven volumes of the Manga that read right to left and each have a big water color foldout.  The foldouts are double sided.  My source for most of the information above is:

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/nausicaa/faq.html#koutei

If you read through these volumes you will realize that Miyazaki's is experimenting a bit with his style.   Once you get to volume four, his style has significantly been refined, with more time and care is given to each panel, and there is much more hatching and contrast.

One of the foldouts has a big drawing of several soldiers.  They appear to be a motley group of worm-handlers (maybe Doroks - I don't know?).  It is a large image with a lot of detail so I thought I would make a study of it in Manga Studio.  I sketched three different layers using different color pencil brushes.  I flipped the image and worked upside down a few times.

I originally was working with a 300dpi file.  I created a new 600 dpi file and imported my third original layer into the new file.  I then used a blue sketch pencil to finish laying everything out.

I then started adding some inking layers.  I tried to follow the technique recommended by Freddie Williams II of doing the outlines first then hatching and shading later.  I experimented with various custom brushes by Frenden - #frendenbrush

The original is over 3000 pixels tall.  Below is some detail at 50% the size of the original.

I am happy with about 2/3rds of the line work and hatching.  You just have to draw, sometimes hit undo, sometimes move on.  At some point I had to quit, cause it was time to return the volume to the library.  Anyways,  Miyazaki is so amazing.  I can't put into words what I think about his style other than he gets everything right without being stiff and formal like Albrecht Durer.  Proportions and perspective - I never question it.  Alright, enough for now.

Keep drawing!  Paul