More art from the vault this week. The Rankin Bass adaptation of The Hobbit is one of my all time favorite shows. Back in grade school, we’d have a special day every year to line up our seats, make popcorn, and watch The Hobbit. We loved it, running home to fashion Elven cloaks and draw maps to fabled treasures and magic rings. It certainly sent me down the Tolkien rabbit hole the rest of my life has become.
I still love watching The Hobbit to this day. The style was super unique and has always been buried somewhere in my influences, though it wasn’t until a few years ago that I really understood why. Turns out the Japanese animation studio that helmed the production for Rankin and Bass, Topcraft, went on to form the core of Studio Ghibli (Totoro, Laputa, Spirited Away, et all). Pretty neat, considering Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is such a huge influence as well.
The above piece, entitled “Hello, What’s This?”, was done with Copics as a sort of experiment to try out the markers. I probably should have used something else to do the flat color in the background, but it is what it is. You can find this piece in the Commissions and Fan Art Gallery, along with the original pen and ink version.