Imagineering

 In October of 2022, I was very excited to begin a new chapter in my career - a Senior Concept Designer at Walt Disney Imagineering! My specialty is Disney and Pixar Character Illustration, as well as concept design and storyboarding. .

WDW bus wraps

It was an honor to get to concept and illustrate 13 of the WDW bus wraps - you can see them cruising all over the property bringing Guests to parks and resorts! I especially love seeing the buses and Skyliner gondolas all meeting at the Art of Animation Resort. All of them were wonderful projects to work on, and such great teams were involved!

The themes included:

Moana, Aladdin, Toy Story, Lion King, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Incredibles, Cinderella, Monsters, Inc., Frozen, Cars, Figment, and Galaxy's Edge.

WDW Skyliner

Can't begin to tell you how incredibly excited I am to finally see and ride these wonderful Skyliner gondolas! It was so much fun to illustrate the wraps for ten of them: 

Stitch, Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh, and the five based on the new Mickey cartoon shorts.

Artist Series Shirt for Disney California Adventure

As part of a series of "artist's choice" tee shirt designs for the California parks, I came up with this one for Disney California Adventure. Being a native of Los Angeles, I really enjoyed working on this piece - even though my specialty is Character Art. Also pictured below is the original concept sketch. From there, after a few passes and rearrangement in Photoshop, I finalized the art as a vector illustration.

New Mickey book

I was overjoyed to see some of my sketches included in this great new book by Disney Editions, called "The Art of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse"! Very humbling to be on the page opposite the one and only Floyd Norman...

Burny Mattinson

Back in June, I was very privileged to be invited to Disney Legend Burny Mattinson's 65th anniversary event at the Grand Floridian Hotel, along with talented friends from work (Alex Maher, Fabiola Garza Villalobos, and Lon Smart). It was a special luncheon for D23 Gold Members, and we were invited as "luminaries" to help them all honor this amazing story artist, animator, director and producer. He was hired in 1953 in Burbank, and has worked continuously as the Walt Disney Company's longest-serving Cast Member; his film credits include "Lady and the Tramp" all the way up to the latest film, "Ralph Breaks the Internet". He wrote, directed and produced one of my absolute favorites, "Mickey's Christmas Carol" in 1983, as well as "The Great Mouse Detective" in 1986. The next day, there was a special screening of 1973's "Robin Hood", on which he animated under Ollie Johnston I believe, at the AMC theater in Disney Springs. It was so cool to get to applaud as his name appeared on the opening credits, and with him in the audience.

Duel

Another illustration from "Tales of the Force", the recent Big Golden Book...

Kylo Ren illustration

This is an illustration from the "Tales of the Force" Big Golden Book.

New Golden Book - Tales of the Force

Excited to see this in stores now! This one's a Big Golden Book, with some of my art.

You can also find it online at: https://www.shopdisney.com/star-wars-tales-of-the-force-a-big-golden-book-1449181

Cars book

These are from a Cars book I illustrated in late 2010; it's a die-cut board book. The pink lines indicated the template of the book shape, and the text shown here is not final. The Cars franchise has always been a favorite of mine, and I'll always be grateful for the opportunities I had to work with these characters. 

I always got a kick out of the little Lightning McQueen toys he had on display in Mack's trailer, and the minivan with the mattress cracked me up... 

The Cars films are so clever in how buildings and even natural elements are "car-ified", and notice how the digital camera is mounted like a side-view mirror in the foreground...

Nemo illustrations

This was for a Finding Nemo short story published in the 2005 Disney Year Book called "Hide 'n Seek Friends", about a flounder who has a hard time fitting in, due to her eyes being on one side of her head. This property is one of my favorites, and it was so much fun incorporating a new character into their world. It was a cute little story, and I love how she saves her friends from a tiger shark by instinctively burrowing into the sand. Everyone has their weaknesses, but they also have their strengths.

New Golden Book

This is a new Big Golden Book called "Tales of the Force", due out in September 2017. Cannot wait for Episode VIII! (Hey, that rhymes...)

(not final cover art)