The artists at Laika Studios (directed by the Art Director, Alice Bird) came up with some beautiful pieces of concept art for the movie Kubo and the Two Strings, which came out in 2016. The movie is set in a fantasy Asian world, filled with nods to ancient Japanese traditions and culture. Landscape concept pieces were created to enhance the idea that the world was realistic, yet highly colourful. The artists stuck to a traditional Japanese woodblock style of painting, which was inspired by Kiyoshi Saito.
Saito’s woodblock painting is very unique, as it embraces old styles of art, while also putting a retro twist on it. The artists at Laika Studios decided to go for a more traditional version of this, but kept to the simplified colours.
This is one of my favourite concept art pieces for the movie, as appears in two ways. At first, it appears as though it's a peaceful, friendly scene. Then you notice how de-saturated the taller figure is compared to the first. The scene has a vast variety of colour that makes all motivations of the picture unclear.
There is no foreground in this image, making the whole scene feel like a large painting (like
the traditional Japanese tapestry paintings). These were traditionally used to tell stories, or to
depict famous moments from literary works of art. These were often in the form of scrolls.
This is an art style I very much appreciate, as it uses line work, and an array of bright colours to tell a story. I also like the contrast between the light and dark in the concept above, as it tells a clear story about what's important to look at, and what isn't.
The types of sounds you'd be hearing in this image would be the gentle splashing of waves against rock, the rustling of leaves, perhaps some crickets, and maybe the faint buzz of fireflies in the distance. The splashing and the leaves are both diegetic sounds, meaning the cause of these noises is visible (the tree between the rocks, and the faint water at the edge of the rock). The other two sounds, the crickets and fireflies, are both non-diegetic, meaning they are happening off screen, but are still audible.
One of the things I'll take away from this piece is the contrast of colours used to tell a story, and to add effect. Without the bright moon and shine of orange light, the scene would look much more sinister. The shaping of the rocks is also beautiful, as it gives of the volume of a rock, but stays in a simplified format.
This next image is also set at night, but it is a lot darker and more mysterious. This is because of the blue-grey colours used to describe the reflection of the water and the mist on the opposite riverbank.
The main focus of this image is the foreground at the bottom of the image, where all the lanterns are floating down a stream. The reason these are some of the first things to catch the beholder's eye is because of the drastic highlights on the handles, which matches the reflection of the moon in the river. In the middle ground is the most noticeable feature, the figure. It's most noticeable because it's the darkest part of the image, which gives off the tone that this person is threatening and shrouded in mystery because of the mist. Because of all the detail in the fore and middle ground, the background is dulled down, with nothing exciting happening. This is very effective, as it mimics the human eyes' inability to pick out details in a pitch black setting.
The sounds that you would hear from this image are the rushing water in the river, crickets in the grass, the rushing wind through the trees (maybe with a whistle to it to add an air of mystery), the groaning of trees against the wind, the wind whipping through the figure's cloak) and maybe a few faint animal sounds. The diegetic sounds would be the river, the wind, the trees and the cloak, whereas the non-diegetic sounds would be the crickets are animals, as they are not visible and there is no visible grass in the image.
The main thing I will take away from this image is the colouration. Having a variety of colours to create a single colour makes a composition more interesting to look at. another colour can also add more tone to the other.
The third image is opposite in colour from the first two, as it's taking place either at sunrise or sunset. It's overall warm pallet of colour gives off a 'safe' vibe from the image, making the image somewhat relaxing to look at.
In the foreground is the main character, Kubo, looking down on a village from a mountain. This part of the composition is darker than the rest of it, which not only contrasts it from the middle and background, but gives Kubo's silhouette more definition, and draws the viewer's eyes to it first. In the middle ground, the most noticeable parts are the village and the ocean. The ocean is the lightest part of the image along with the sky, and the two blend together, which brings the composition together. The background is a faded out version of silhouetted trees. This is visually pleasing and accurate, as trees in real life go blue at a distance because of the sky (as the sky is in sunrise/ sunset in this image, this is a good attention to detail, which also gives off a mysterious feel, as if the rest of the world beyond the village is hazy or far away to Kubo).
The diegetic noises you'd hear would be the distance rush of a river, the waves of the ocean, the bustle of the town down in the valley (heckling, maybe horses clopping and the sounds of carts being pulled, along with a bell), the rustle of leaves from all the trees. The non-diegetic sounds would be chirps from birds, as there aren't any visible in the image.
I'll take away the lighting and shading from this image, as it was easy to tell how far away the village could've been just by the shadows. I also liked how the ocean and sky bled into the same colour, which made the whole composition feel vast and open, and yet because of the distant trees and fog, very close and familiar.
The final image is one of my favourites, as it incorporates mainly water. I think the reflection of the water is beautiful, and though it is not accurate to real life, it sticks to the beauty in serenity and relaxing feeling of all the images.
There is no foreground in this image, as the ocean is too far away to be considered a foreground. The ocean itself has been painted a vivid blue with a reflection of the cliff and the boat. In the middle ground, the cliffs start coming into view, along with the most noticeable part of the image. Because the boat is made up of reds, oranges and yellows, it stands out against the vivid blue and brown-grey cliffs. It's also more saturated than anything else in the image, and that helps give it definition. The cliffs also start protruding in to the middle ground, and they caught my eye fast because of the intricate texturing they have on them. It make them feel denser and solider, and the texture allows them to seem more situated in the scene rather than contrasting it. In the background, the cliffs fade off, and burgundy bushes are rising into the air. The sky is also a big part of this image. The artists really stuck to Kiyoshi Saito's textured techniques, as the sky is messily painted on, with gaps left for clouds.
The sounds you could hear in the image are simple. the diegetic sounds would be the wind, the waves hitting the cliffs, and the noise of a boat rocking back and forth (creaking). A non-diegetic noise would be seagulls, as there are none in the image.
I'll definitely take away the ideas of having the focus point of an image be more saturated than the rest of it, as that would be an easy way to get the composition of an image right. I'll also take note from the balance of the image. The boat (the focal point) is off centre, which draws you eyes to the cliff first, then to the right side, where the ocean expands outward.
I had a go at replicating the art style. I used a different brush on Photoshop to mimic the textured look that the Art Department had used to describe things like stone mountains. I somewhat succeeded with this, however I feel that I could've added a bit more difference in texture. I started with a blue background, that I faded darker at the top. I later changed this to fade to orange to look like a sunset.
I added some mountains to the middle ground, as there isn't a foreground for this image. I did this because most of the concept for Kubo and the Two Strings are of vast landscapes. I decided that I wanted to create some sunsets on mountain range. I made the mountains a slightly blue-grey, which added a lot of colour. It also gives a greater contrast to the orange I used to look like sunlight falling on the mountains, which I later used to create the sunset. The mountains further back are lighter in colour and bluer, which makes them seem further away. I also added a layer of light orange in the upper right corner, which gave the illusion of sunlight streaming down from off-screen.
I also added turquoise shading in geometric ways to mimic the style, and also to contrast with the orange I used for the lighter areas of the image. I added a figure to the cliffs to add a focal point and also scale to the image. I also added additional layers of lighting to the lighter areas, which really made the mountains further back stand out against the mist and clouds I added around the sky. I made sure to have the points of the mountains be visible, which shows where the sun is in relation to the rest of the image.
I think this image would have a lot of the same sounds as the image of Kubo on a cliff overlooking a village in a valley. The only difference would be that there wouldn't be any distant bustle from the town, and no distant crashing waves from the sea. There would be a lot of wind howling, as the cloak on the figure is reacting to some form of wind. The only non-diegetic sound for this image would be bird calls from hawks, or gulls, or falcons, as mountains are common places to find larger, predatory birds.
Although I feel like I went too simple with the style, that is how I'm most comfortable creating concept art, so it essentially solidifies this image as an amalgamation of my style and the concept art of Kubo and the Two Strings. I love the air of mystery around this image, and I think the simplicity of it really conveys this.