Raptorous.net

It's been way too long since I've posted anything artistic here to my blog, so here's a fresh new piece! I've been wanting to do something in the style of Makoto Shinkai, so here's my take on it. I know, I know, it's nothing like it, but this is what I wanted to do. Mr. Shinkai's work has a very strange power to it. The environments that he paints are always beautiful, yet have a sense of nostalgia to the locations. Even if you've never been to the place, it gives you an incredible feeling of, "I know this place! That's the place from a long time ago..." I wanted to invoke that same sort of feeling, but it was extremely difficult. Mr. Shinkai's environments are often times illustrations of actual locations in Japan, and so I decided to choose the salt flats right out side of my work. Driving past it at 7 in the morning, the sun shines a brilliant orange glow on a perfectly flat thin layer of water that is the flats. It's quite beautiful, so I wanted to capture it. I also run along the flats almost every day, so it was natural to have the character running.

This has definitely been the longest illustration I've ever done (two months...on and off...maybe?) and the most complex. There were certainly lots of challenges, and I don't think I've conquered them all, but hopefully I can practice more, and get there.