3/10/13- My First Post (The Summer Project)

The Title Page for my project

Over the Summer, we were given the task of completing a sketchbook on the subject of a person or movement in our individual fields and their influence on those fields, mine being animation. I based my sketchbook on Hayao Miyazaki and the animation studio he co-founded, Studio Ghibli.
I have always been exposed to animated films, ever since I was a baby, but I only really first considered animation as a future career after the first time I saw one of Miyazaki's most critically acclaimed films, 'Spirited Away', when I was 13. After that, all I wanted to be was an animator, and because of this inspiration I feel very passionately about Miyazaki's work, so it was only natural for me to base the project on him.
I wanted my sketchbook to have a good balance between visual and written material, so I illustrated a lot of it, including copies of characters from the films, as well as my own original sketches inspired by the Ghibli style. Meanwhile, the writing side of my project was fairly structured, including a short biography of Hayao Miyazaki, his filmography, the ideas and themes of his films, Studio Ghibli's effect on the rest of the animation world, as well as the creation process.
Due to the fact I have already researched Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki prior to the announcement of the project, I already had some good basic information and understanding to work with, although a lot of my research was made using the web and various Studio Ghibli Art Books.
One of my main focuses was the relationship between Studio Ghibli and Pixar Studios, which is especially interesting due to the big difference between the animation styles and techniques. 
I thoroughly enjoyed this project- I got to fully immerse myself in a subject I felt very strongly about, as well as develop my own drawing skills while I was away from college.