This is a commission piece for ~Ironicaintit. He didn't have an anthro character, but remarked that he desired to have a tribal fox - this is what I came up with. For the most part, I drew my inspiration from my recent trip to Hawaii and the Polynesian Culture Center there. The fox here is a fusion between Tonga (drums), Fiji (markings), and Samoa (outfit) tribes.

The overall style in which I colored the piece was drawn from Miyazaki's cell-animation. The fox is cell-shaded in much the same fashion as Miyazaki's characters are in his movies. This was as close as I could get, considering I've never done anything like it before. Miyazaki, I've discovered, does not actively use lighing color. He relies on base colors and shadows only. I realized this about half-way through, and made amends where possible. The outcome is a combination of cell-shading and small amounts of airbrushing. The background was the best I could do within the time I was given and current skill-set. I'm no background painter, so I could not accurately portray Miyazaki's beautiful backgrounds. However, I'm very pleased with how this came out.

Please full view! It's not very big and it's well-worth a closer look. Thank you so much!
NEW! I just created a tutorial, using this piece, on how to compose, color, and light in photoshop. Check it out!