Nighthawks - Ghibli Tribute
Final Pastiche Tribute

Final Pastiche Tribute

Nighthawks Original by Edward Hopper from 1942

Nighthawks Original by Edward Hopper from 1942

Grouping:
One of the first things I had to do was grouping of the characters. With and against others to match the original painting. This helps to get some kind of story going but it also adds to the coherence when you know the different movies.

Grouping:
One of the first things I had to do was grouping of the characters. With and against others to match the original painting. This helps to get some kind of story going but it also adds to the coherence when you know the different movies.

Repetition:
Another compositional move I love to do is repetition. I look at an existing painting for shapes and look for ways on how I can repeat that shape for a stronger composition.

Repetition:
Another compositional move I love to do is repetition. I look at an existing painting for shapes and look for ways on how I can repeat that shape for a stronger composition.

Arabesque:
Due to the rectangular basic composition this one was more tricky. That was the reason I rounded the corners of the doorway and signs on the back as also the reason why I put the Laputa-Robot there so it does not cut the view in the corner.

Arabesque:
Due to the rectangular basic composition this one was more tricky. That was the reason I rounded the corners of the doorway and signs on the back as also the reason why I put the Laputa-Robot there so it does not cut the view in the corner.

Triangular enclosures:
My personal favorite, because it makes grouping a lot easier in the beginning. It also helps to decide where to put which character in a complex scene.

Triangular enclosures:
My personal favorite, because it makes grouping a lot easier in the beginning. It also helps to decide where to put which character in a complex scene.

Nighthawks - Ghibli Tribute

Brushes, Prints & more: https://www.arsfantasio.de
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Edward Hopper meets Hayao Miyazaki!

Took me a while to upload and also to create this Handpainted Inceptionism.

I finished this last year and it was actually a suggestion from a customer who looked for a Ghibli / Nighthawks piece.
When I researched it, there were only a few low-effort versions out there and I was all in for a tribute version that is much more reflecting my love for classical art and the Ghibli Movies!

Since the original painting is composed to communicate isolation and is a great showcase of American architecture, I had to change many elements to make it work for the composition I had in mind, which is a lot busier and I also wanted to add the Japanese touch.

I carefully picked the "Nighthawks" from the Ghibli Movies and added a context to them whenever possible, to add a story to the "new" version of this painting. But they also had to fit the painting so I would really have loved to add Kamajī and many others, but there is just so much space within these four corners ;)

I also used many of the compositional techniques learned from the old masters which I studied over the course of the last 10 years. My commentary below each picture may help to understand the process behind this.

If you also want to learn more about composition, I have 2 e-books about this topic available on my Gumroad here: https://fantasio.gumroad.com/l/kWxSl? the other one is free btw. ;)

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