How to Draw the Radish Spirit
The Radish Spirit is easily one of the coolest characters (I think!) in Hayao Miyazaki's popular anime film - Spirited Away. Here - although in the movie he doesn't really show all that much emotion... I positioned him to be waving - perhaps a goodbye to Sen as she makes her way back from the spirit realm to the real world.
Oh - and you'll notice... I've put a unique spin on this character with respect to the style of lines - eyes too! So yes - it's a homage to the original.
Picking up our pencils/styluses...
How to Draw the Radish Spirit from 'Spirited Away'
An easy way to secure the structure of our subject - before we actually draw... is to treat each 'bulging' section of his body - as just that - a section.
Below I've done just this... a circle up top - and two ovals below...
Feature-wise, the Radish Spirit has to have - of course! - a radish-like appearance as part of his make-up. After all... that's what he is!
Marking off key areas like so...
OK - before you draw anything here - do note that I've changed the style of the eyes, something that came to me as I was working through. Compared to the original - you can easily see the difference.
Start with the top of the upside down radish (kimchi!?) bowl...
And then yes - make those eyes happen, neatly placed according to the cross, as it place-holds the eyes in relation to A - center, and B - the rest of his soon-to-be-less-circular-and-much-more-radish-like head. :-)
I'm thinking - as he waves goodbye to Sen - one of his 'radish tentacles' would sort of sway outward - similar to how I've depicted it below. Kind of a neat effect...
And now - easily almost... give your character some form - working around the shapes we've already established.
Here's how it looks so far...
The spiky little root-like fingers can be made even more interesting by having them take on the look of real ones. Don't go to far with this though - or we might just lose that likeness we're trying to maintain!
And don't forget his bath towel...
Some well-placed lines to give off a bit of a more 'rough' appearance... some texture even... and here's what we've got...
But then - keeping with the original color code from the movie... a touch of grey really helps to bring things out the way we'd like --- just like so...
Goodbye Sen - he says... back to the real world, where her parents are no longer pigs!
Hope you had fun with this one... quite honestly - it was inspired after seeing the movie for the fourth time!
Radish Spirit complete! :-)
Recommended Drawing Resources
To further your learning and improvement, check out the following resources...
- Learn how to draw caricatures with Graeme Biddle.
- Discover how to use photoshop in a day. Makes everything so much simpler.
- Check out Chad Baldwin's digital painting techniques.
Click here to return from How to Draw the Radish Spirit to Hayao Miyazaki
