Feeling inspired by the masters

I've been thinking a lot about the backdrops for my scenes lately and can't stop coming back to the beautiful, hand-painted backgrounds seen in the earlier cel animations of Disney. Films like Bambi and Pocahontas are lovely examples of the delicate effect I want to go for. The latest Studio Ghibli/Disney collaboration has this beauty as well in the sky scenes, where clouds are delicately touched with colour from the sunset. They are actually very reminiscent of stage backdrops, as they don't move and are subtle enough to not distract from the action in the foreground.

I might start looking at the more abstract stage backdrops used in operas and musicals to get a bit more inspiration on this. For this method, a graphics tablet would probably be my best approach though so I may need to either invest or find a different, low-tech solution (perhaps working under the camera, as I am still drawn to the idea of shadow puppetry). For now, I just want to focus on getting this subtle, watercolour effect right though.