I have decided I want to do for Mushishi what I did for Kino no Tabi: make so many walls that people can't help but get their interest piqued and create new fans, who in turn will make more wallpapers to introduce more fans. This is just the beginning.
I saw some photographs from the upcoming live-action Mushishi movie, and while Ginko looks like a total retarted bishounen (which he most definately is not based on manga and anime art) the character artwork for Nui looked beautifully elegant. So I decided to use a photograph as a basis for a wallpaper.

It's quite a different challenge to convert a photograph into an anime-styled image, I tell you. The details are all different.
I have been of late experimenting with creating and utilizing art brushes in Illustrator and used this wallpaper to further explore this technique to give the image a Japanese calligraphic scroll style for the outlines. Nui was first colored in Illustrator and then smudge-painted in Photoshop to maintain the painted effect. (Shinn, see, I eventually got to the vector+paint in one wall!)
The smoke was shamelessly traced out of an xxxholic image, because the twisty curls of smoke fit so well, and both Yuuko and Nui seem to like smoking long pipes.
Textured to give it that "painted on a wall" aged feeling.
ZOMG MORE RESOLUTIONS!