The Art of Howl's Moving Castle: A Book Review

Like anyone, I love practically all of the Studio Ghibli films since I was young. However, I was late to the party when getting my hands on any of their art books. After a short visit to my local library, I came across a huge selection of art books based on films by Studio Ghibli or the artworks of Hayao Miyazaki himself. So I just had to get my hands on one of them!

What is this book about?

This book covers the artwork, sketches, storyboards and character creation through every major scene from the animated film, "Howl's Moving Castle". It's an incredibly well-documented book of all the major scenes throughout the film, which also includes the incomprehensible side notes by Hayao Miyazaki himself. It covers a lot of different parts such as the ideas that went on behind the scenes of creating the movie, as well as background scenery to the choices made during the character development.  You also get to read comments about the artwork from other artists involved in the production.

How has this book helped you as an artist?

This book has been an incredible reference book and a resource for inspiration. Going through each page bit by bit has been an incredible journey in itself. But, I love about it most is that whatever mood you are in whether you want to paint landscapes, people, monsters, interiors etc. You will find some great reference point in this book. 

How I use it to improve my artwork is to study the image and try and reverse-engineer the process it took the artist to get to that final image. This trick has been a great learning tool for me, but only to do just copy but try to look at real-life studies as well and apply the techniques I see another artist's doing to try and achieve the look of how I want it to look. The images are so vivid and detailed that it's not hard to pick up some techniques.  

Also, it has just been a wonderful place to look when I'm feeling uninspired!

I feel like detailed illustrated books like these help you understand the movie that much better. If you're like me and you've seen the movies a few times but you want to know more, I recommend this book as the artists' and director's comments give just a little more insight into the inner workings of the movies. 

Anyway, if you haven't seen the film. Go do it now! 

Do I recommend this book? YES, and especially to artists who are interested in background design, character design or just have a wild imagination and are a fan of the film.