Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary pins

Constance Hatchaway, the "Black Widow Bride", is a fairly recent update to the Haunted Mansions at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. There has always been a spectral bride floating around in the attic, but the Imagineers cleverly expanded her story - basically, she has a history of ill-fated matrimony. I got the opportunity while at the Disney Design Group to design some lenticular illustrations for the Mansion's 40th Anniversary pin collection. These are my stylized versions of five creepy wedding portraits that are displayed with her in the attic. Each husband was wealthier than the last, as seen by her pearl necklaces, which gain one strand for each marriage. This is the kind of crazy research I would get into for these pins - but that's so much a part of what I loved about working for Disney (as dark as this particular subject was). I designed the borders of the pins as wedding rings; the number of rubies on each corresponds with the consecutive husband shown. (Click on the images to see them larger)


Below is the jumbo pin that goes with the set; I designed it so that as one pulls down the spider at the bottom, the grooms' heads "disappear" from their portraits. Also pictured is the framed set of five wedding ring lenticular pins, sold with a signed lithograph of my concept drawing for the jumbo. The process of designing the pins involves drawing them by hand, scanning them into a computer, digitally inking them using a tablet and stylus and calling out all the metals and color fills to be used at the factory.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE CONSTANCE!

Anonymous said...

were do u get these pins? can i buy them from u ?

Ron said...

Here's the link to the Disney merchandise site:
http://www.register123.com/profile/web/index.cfm?PKwebID=0x15118481e2&varPage=info
They will be available at the Haunted Mansion 40th anniversary event at the Disneyland Resort on September 9th, I believe.

J. said...

Hello,
You are exposing the illustrations of four of the five Constance's husbands.
Is there an illustration of the first husband (Ambroise)?
Can you share it?

Ron said...

Updated this with her first husband, Ambrose, and its corresponding lenticular pin.