American Icon Final

Big blue eyes stare at a TV screen full of excitement, as honey-blonde hair hangs around a young, excited face. All day I had begged my mom to let me watch my favorite animated movie, “My Neighbor Totoro” by Hayao Miyazaki, a classic animated movie of two young girls who venture through their new home. They meet a mysterious creature named Totoro who is the guardian of the forest near their home. As the plot grows, I get closer and closer to the edge of my seat. Even though I have seen the movie before, I still feel as if it was my first time seeing it. Finally, as the credits role, I began to think about the movie, about how every scene had captivated me and how I wanted to know what would happen next even though I already knew what would happen. I wanted to be like that, to be like Hayao Miyazaki I wanted to draw.
I would sit in class, my notepad out and my mind would wander. Sometimes I got bored so I would pick up my pencil and draw. Whenever my art teacher would come I would get him to look at my pictures. He told me his favorite part was the birds. He taught me how to draw birds with stencils. It was fun creating new pictures of birds, now when I can’t think of what to draw next I just draw birds. Another person who helped me to really advance in my drawing was a substitute teacher, who taught me how draw people’s proportion more properly one day when I had spaced out and had begun to draw. Without him, it may have taken more time to advance to my level today. These people have really inspired me and have taught me so much.
The reason that this is such an inspiration to me is because, I have grown to love art and have become more skilled as an artist. Because of Hayao Miyazaki’s inspiration towards me, I have decided to build my future around art. Like any other human-being I was never a good artist, but with time I begun to understand and improve my skills as an artist. At first, my art consisted of everything, people, plants, and animals but I eventually got to the point were I liked to draw people. I slowly worked on that until I got better and I even still draw people but I have started to have more of a variety of things now. With time I hope to pass on my skills and my passion for art to others.
Now that I am older, my art style has changed and I have become better as an artist. I write my own stories and I have watched more of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies such as Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and a recent release Ponyo. I have become more experienced in art and have learned about more art styles. Thanks to Hayao Miyazaki, I have been inspired to pass on my knowledge and skills of art to the next generation by through my stories, comics, or even through becoming an art teacher so that I can teach kids all about art. The reason I chose Hayao Miyazaki is because his art has influenced me throughout the years to become an artist. When ideas wouldn’t come or I needed a break I would watch one of his movies and just look at his style and how he thinks, really taking in what was going on. The reason is because of all the culture and art in the movie and how there is so much imagination and creativity. My hope is to inspire young minds through my art and pass the baton or the pencil in this case to the next generation.