Studio Ghibli's beautiful film Spirited Away debuted the same year I went on exchange to Japan, and the misadventures of Chihiro in an exotic and unfamiliar land so closely paralleled my own; protracted periods of humiliation, bellyflopping, getting everything wrong always, people telling you you smell weird;P But in turn also was a profound bewitchment. That to be is embodied in the person of Haku, who's grace and unknowability and ancient, mythic loveliness, are so much that animating magic I felt in Japan. I hope my portrait here does him any justice at all 💜
Anyway, this painting was a mind scrambler, as followers of mine will recognize pastels are not often in my palette, and there is not a lick of black in this entire frame;P The glaze medium I got to try and do the transparent scales backfired and do I had to do them all my hand in the end. And then digitizing the silver leaf was an exercise in grand high Photoshop madness I will spare you, lol. I am very tiredXD