 The backgrounds, clouds, and flying islands (they are called  "laputa") in the Flying sequence were painted by an artist named  INOUE Naohisa. He is a former high school art teacher, who continued  painting pictures of "Iblard" on his own. When he had his  exhibition, he sent an invitation to Miyazaki, since Inoue was a  huge fan of Miyazaki anime. Of course, he didnt expect anything,  but Miyazaki showed up, and he bought one painting (which is now on  the wall of the cafeteria at Ghibli). The painting is called "Upward  Draft", and looks exactly like the fantasy scene in "Mimi" . Then,  Miyazaki asked him, "Can you work on our next film?". Inoue also  worked in "Mimi" as a voice actor. He did one of Mr. Nishis  friends, who joined the "Country Road" jam session (hes the tall  one).