Artist's commentary
Mononoke
"Impudent Humans. They always have been spreading their greedy tendrils throughout this land, but to reach even this stretch of forest? This is...unsettling."
"We won't let them do anything to our home. Not our Wolf tribe, we won't!" The girl knew of Humans, but this was the closest she'd ever been to them. With a brief pause, the girl took another breath and added in a trembling voice, "And yet...it's all the more strange that I share their looks. Why is that?"
The Wolf curved its head ever so slightly towards the girl with precarious eyes. "You already know that is not for me to disclose to you, as Mother Moro wishes. Perhaps you can go ask Her yourself, but I doubt She will tell you now as you are. Wait for some time until you are older, little one." The Wolf then slowly returned its attention to the sea of lights. "For now, heed my warning when I tell you not to ever mingle with or approach these heathens. Without question they are dangerous to our tribe, our home, and our way of living."
"Yeah...," replied the young girl wistfully as she too, gazed down at the haunting lights with inquisitive eyes. "I know."
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Oof. That's the first time I've ever written dialogue for a scene I've drawn. Hopefully it helped add some context to the image, of which I aimed to show a younger San before meeting Ashitaka and learning more about humans! 15-16 hour painting done in Photoshop ^^ You can find a speedpaint video of this piece here !