"You can always come home."

Kiki’s Delivery Service is one of my all time favorite Ghibli Studio movies. I watch it every year that it plays in theaters because I love it that much! Did you know that Kiki celebrated its 30th Anniversary this year? I love this movie for a lot of different reasons and I always find something new to love about it each year I re-watch. This year, there was a scene in particular that was really special to me and kind of hit me unexpectedly—I got choked up, and honestly it was such a small scene in the movie.

I needed to get this scene onto some sort of canvas (digital this time, my first one!) because the scene moved me and made me think of my father fondly. He passed away at the beginning of this year and it’s been a rough healing period for me. So whenever I have a fond or sweet memory of him, I try my best to translate those feelings and emotions to paper (or digital paper). Kind of a small way of honoring him through my art.

The scene reminds me of moments as a child with my father. He was a typical Asian dad, pretty stoic, not emotionally expressive or overtly affectionate, and a rather “hardened” guy. He did let some of that roughness dissolve when it came to me though, my family used to tease me about it endlessly but I was definitely “daddy’s girl”. I was spoiled (ain’t afraid to admit it ya’ll) and he always had a soft spot for me—I was the baby of four children after all.

Once I was a young adult, dad had some major pearls of wisdom for me. He used to be so strict when I was a teenager and growing up. But once I was full swing into my twenties, he had so much understanding and patience with me and I will cherish that always. Both of my parents have always told me I can come back home “if things don’t work out” but it meant something just a little bit more special when it came from my dad. I know he worried about me after I left home, but at the same time he somehow managed to show that he trusted me and my judgement and always encouraged me to do my best.

Kiki: “Dad, can you lift me up high, like when I was little?”
Okino: “How come you never told me you were growing up so fast? If things don’t work out, you can always come home”.

I hope you enjoyed this fanart! It’s one of my first digital drawings so I’m still getting the hang of painting, lineart, etc. It’s pretty fun so far! Do you do digital art? What’s your favorite app? Do you have an IG, leave em’ in the comments so I can check out your artwork!