Draw the contrast
I've been drawing a background for a one-shot manga set at Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, and people on my Twitch stream keep asking me the same question.
How does it look more detailed than the reference photo?
My photo reference taken from the observation deck of Fushimi Inari Taisha (about 1/3 of the way up the mountain). Kyoto is sprawling below.
The reference photo is one I took from the observation deck at Fushimi Inari Taisha during my trip to Japan in 2024. I visited in the fall when the leaves were starting to turn, but even then there is an awful lot of green in Kyoto. Tokyo had more of the autumn leaf flavor when I went up that direction after. My goal on this trip was to visit Fushimi Inari to pay my respects. Inari culture and lore has a very special place in my heart, and shrine culture and worship is synonymous with my religious leanings. I find that I'm at peace whenever I'm at a shrine.
So as I was climbing up this massive mountain, I was also thinking like an artist. The light coming in through the torii. The way the trees cast shadows. How the light was changing throughout the entire day. And when I got to the observation deck, which was a huge accomplishment for me given what I had overcome with my ankle and being unable to walk for years, I looked out over Kyoto and realized just how much more of the mountain there was to go.
What surprised me the most was that when I looked down, I could not see any of the thousands of torii that I had walked through to get to that point.
Here are some of the torii going up the mountain. See the writing on the columns? Those are sponsors! Sanrio even has one!
If you aren't familiar with Fushimi Inari Taisha, it is the largest Inari shrine in Japan. The torii, thousands of them all lined up together, are quite an iconic photo op. Most people visiting were there to snap a picture for their gram and move on. But this was a spiritual experience for me and an opportunity to feel inspired as an artist. I love the Inari messengers, the little foxes you see on all the statues. Sometimes one has a key in its mouth, or wheat, or a sickle. Sometimes their mouths are empty. I've even seen some with scrolls. The statues are carved out of stone and heavily worn down by the elements. You can definitely tell a newer statue from an older one.
A well-maintained, likely newer Inari statue with wheat in its mouth at the entrance to the main shrine.
Inari statues framing the next set of torii going up the mountain, following the main loop. Older, weather worn, but still well maintained.
An Inari statue farther in the shrine grounds, up the mountain. Moss gradually covering it. You can see the layers of scarves placed around its neck. Next time I go, I’m bringing and buying scarves for them!
By the time I reached the observation deck, even though I'd started climbing at about 5:00 AM, it was around 9:00 in the morning. I spent a good amount of time just sitting on the ground with my feet against the railing, watching the sunrise spread across the city from behind. And as I watched the light move across Kyoto, I was able to see how it was hitting each of the buildings, how the mountain itself was casting shadows on itself and its trees, and how the shadows were still gently touching the buildings at the mountain's perimeter.
My feet and Kyoto. Hiking shoes courtesy of my boyfriend were a lifesaver! You can see the tops of trees that are taller than any pine tree I’ve ever seen in my home state of Florida! It’s these trees that are capturing light and also obscuring the torii below.
I even viewed Fushimi Inari Taisha later from the Kyoto Tower, looking out during sunset when the golden rays should have been striking all of those red torii. I was still barely able to see them. The trees are massive. They are too tall. From any angle you have of that mountain, you cannot necessarily see the torii. The shadows compound, the trees overlap each other, and they hide the thousands and thousands of vermillion torii that climb that mountain.
The view of Fushimi Inari Taisha from Kyoto Tower. You can see a whopping 2 of the thousands of torii and just a part of the main shrine on the far right.
It makes the experience on the mountain that much more special. Only when you are there can you truly feel the radiating vermillion glow around you. Only when you're there before sunrise can you truly feel how green the world is and how aquamarine it becomes as the sun slowly climbs up into the sky.
Drawing Kyoto from that observation deck meant drawing a city I couldn't just copy from a photo. The version of Kyoto I needed on the page for this manga simply did not exist in any single reference. And backgrounds are already challenging. You don't have a human subject to draw. Cities look cold because they are angular and rigid, and people want to look at art that feels more organic and natural. Drawing Fushimi Inari Taisha in contrast to the bright angular city of Kyoto was something I knew I would have to be very delicate with.
And then every person who wandered into my stream while I was working on this piece said the same thing.
How the hell did you do this?
How is it more detailed than the photo?
My work in progress of the background featuring both Kyoto and Fushimi Inari Taisha.
There's a specific reason for that. A set of decisions I'm making at every step that have nothing to do with being more skilled or more precise and everything to do with understanding what you're actually looking at when you look at a reference photo. If you want to see exactly how I break that down, the full technique is over in the Adventurer's Guild on Patreon. Come hang out with me!
