Description
The Hayao Miyazaki Art Book is a large-format hardcover published by DelMonico Books with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Created for the museum’s inaugural 2021 exhibition and produced in collaboration with Studio Ghibli in Tokyo, the volume accompanied the first North American retrospective devoted to Miyazaki.
Across 288 pages, 300 color illustrations trace the filmmaker’s work through the 11 features represented in the exhibition. Concept sketches, character studies, storyboards, layouts, painted backgrounds and production cels show how films including My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle developed from working drawings into finished scenes. The selection includes production material that had not previously been shown outside Studio Ghibli’s archives.
Jessica Niebel provides the principal text, with a foreword by Toshio Suzuki and additional contributions from Pete Docter and Daniel Kothenschulte. Jessica Fleischmann of still room designed the book, giving full-page artwork, working notes and smaller process studies enough room to be examined closely.
The 9 x 10.75-inch hardcover works as both a visual archive and a practical reference for readers, animators, filmmakers and students interested in Miyazaki’s methods. Published in 2021, its film coverage ends before The Boy and the Heron. The book was also shortlisted for the College Art Association’s 2023 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award.





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