Princess Mononoke is an interesting example of drawing from history to create new designs, making designs that fit in the story. It is a Japanese animated movie of course, from the famous Studio Ghibli, directed by Miyazaki. The setting is feudal Japan, and can be summed up (maybe too simply) as civilization vs nature.


The main protagonist is Prince Ashitaka, and he rides on a great horned animal, named Yakkul











Yakkul is a character in himself, and there was a lot of thought put into his design. For one, why does Ashitaka ride Yakkul instead of a horse?

Director Hayao Miyazaki says in his own words:

"I made Yakkul because I somehow felt it would be easier to draw an imaginary animal. The other reason is that if I had a boy riding a horse with a Japanese sword and a topknot (a typical hairstyle of Japanese in period dramas), he would be a samurai. Then he would associated with the image of a samurai which existing period dramas have built. But I didn't want that. I wanted to have a boy, not a samurai boy, in the movie."
-interview from http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/m_on_mh.html

So what you aren't is just as, if not more important than what you are. This is actually a pretty big part of the design behind Princess Mononoke, making solid distinctions between the different factions.


And the visual design for Yakkul, he's actually based off of an animal Miyazaki created for a storybook published decades ago!




















Always keep your artwork! You never know when you'll need it.