Ratatouille cover

The above is a rough layout of a Ratatouille book cover as I received it, prior to cleaning it up.

A Ratatouille cover I cleaned up for Random House via Disney Publishing.

Toy Story pins for Zoetrope set

These were drawn as part of a pin set about the Pixar zoetrope (which is spinning at Disney's California Adventure), in collaboration with Brett Brooks, who did the original concepts for the set.

Toy Story pin set

These were done as part of a Toy Story pin set. I tried to draw them as clean as possible before digitally inking them in Adobe Illustrator.

The Princess and the Frog

Today is the wide release of Disney's official return to traditional feature-length animation after more than five years: "The Princess and the Frog". I can't wait to see it tonight with friends and colleagues, and hope it does well this opening weekend. Needless to say, I'm very proud of this film, and grateful for the chance to work on it with Premise Entertainment in Orlando (one of the studios that helped in a big way with clean-up, effects, backgrounds, and ink and paint) - hopefully this will usher in many more traditionally-animated films. Please go see it and enjoy!

Candlelight Processinal pin

This is another pin for which I drew the characters just before the layoff back in March. I just saw it previewed on http://www.disneypincast.com/, which analyzes new and upcoming Disney pins on a frequent basis. I enjoyed this one, since the Candlelight Processional is such a beautiful event at both Disneyland in California and Epcot in Florida. The first time I saw it was at Disneyland, and James Earl Jones was the guest speaker narrating the Christmas story. If anyone hasn't seen it, it's something you really shouldn't pass up!

"Cars" Step into Reading book - "The Spooky Sound"

I was pleasantly surprised when my wife found my book on Amazon the other day. It won't be out until next summer, but you can preorder it already! I'm still in the process of fixing up some of the interior paints. As always, I am very grateful for the opportunity to work on these books.

Beauty and the Beast illustration

This is from one of the pages I illustrated for a Beauty and the Beast short story in a recent Disney Yearbook.

Big Al pin; Toontown pins

Here are some pins I designed earlier this year. I was very excited to do the Big Al pin. The Country Bear Jamboree has always been a favorite of mine, and I'm glad they still have it playing here in Florida ("Blood on the Saddle"...). The Toontown pins were some of the last ones I worked on, and of course they were a lot of fun. Much of the challenge, though fun in its own right, was in the researching for certain details. Donald's boat, the "Miss Daisy", for example, is different in each Magic Kingdom, so it was important to indicate details that were specific to the original in Disneyland.

Pixar Heroes Mini Figures

I'm so glad this finally came out - this is a set of Pixar figures that I designed last year at the Disney Design Group. Included are Woody, Buzz, Sulley, Randall, Mr. Incredible and Syndrome. It was great getting the chance to design exaggerated versions of these characters, especially the villains - which you don't often see as toys. This set is exclusive to the stores in the parks and resorts.

WDW Christmas composition 2008

This was for WDW's 2008 Holiday season, when the sparkling winter castle lights were introduced to the world. I drew Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto; the rest of the art was pulled together from pre-existing style guides. Composing the image was certainly a blast, but it was really exciting to see the final art (rendered by Jose Pardo) all over the theme parks that year. This was one of my earlier projects at the Disney Design Group.

Princess and the Frog - Premise crew in Florida

We wrapped up our portion of ink and paint on "Princess and the Frog" on September 11. This is a shot taken of the Premise crew in Orlando, when Ron Clements and John Musker visited. Can't wait to see the film's release in December! I had a wonderful time working on this film, and am extremely grateful for the chance to clean-up and ink and paint on a magnificent feature alongside old and new friends. Thanks, Premise!

Haunted Mansion "Welcome to the After-LIFE" game

While working at the Disney Design Group, I was given the opportunity to create the line art for the cover of the new Game of Life "Haunted Mansion" version (exclusive to the theme parks), as well as for the twelve "Career" cards in the game. Garret Webb, Casey Jones and Quynh Kimball designed and "brought to life" all the art on the game board, game pieces and "Residence" cards within; Jose Pardo did an incredible job of painting the final art - giving everyone a ghastly pallor, betraying a feeling of foreboding... (to quote the attraction). This was a lot of fun.

This sequence of images were for the lenticular Madame Leota on the game cover; I animated her face traditionally and painted her digitally. It was a great feeling, even if only for seven frames, to be flipping drawings again on an animation desk in the animation building. I hope the effect works as a lenticular image - I haven't seen the final product yet.

Storyboards

Back in 2004, shortly after the closing of the Florida studio, I was given the opportunity to storyboard at Project Firefly, a local start-up studio of former Disney artists. The first project was "Pooh's Heffalump Halloween", a direct-to-DVD film, followed by "The Tinkerbell Movie" and "Cinderella III". Working in a smaller studio was a great way to learn new skills, and it was certainly a lot of fun.

Pixar

What an Incredible studio! This is from 2007, when I went to Pixar in Emeryville, CA with artists from the Disney Design Group. It was an "Artists' Creative Camp", in collaboration with Disney Consumer Products, and we had a blast. Not only was the creative atmosphere overwhelmingly inspiring - it made you just want to draw, design, animate, and storyboard all day - but it was so cool to run into old friends from the Florida and Burbank studios, and even some I hadn't seen since CalArts, over 15 years ago!

"Curious George" rough animation

I recently watched the "Curious George" film again, and recalled how much fun it was to work on (for Universal Pictures, via Project Firefly). Here's another of my scenes. While I had always enjoyed the embellishing precision of clean-up animation (which I did for a decade at Disney), the opportunity to animate in rough was an absolute joy! This was the first film for which I'd animated professionally, as opposed to final line, clean-up animation.

"Princess and the Frog" team at Premise Entertainment

I'm very excited to be involved in this project. It's also great to be working with old friends from the glorious heyday of Disney 2D animation - seen here with Ruben Procopio when he visited a while back. We're all hoping this film will herald a genuine return for a beloved, classic art form. In the meantime, this studio in Orlando is full of its own original ideas and talent, and the creative drive to make great things happen.

Haunted Mansion pins

Coming up very soon is the 40th anniversary Haunted Mansion event at Disneyland, and some of my pins are up online for sale already (the actual event is 9/09/09). Several of my original sketches are also available, framed with the final pins for which they were created. I still can't believe it - it is still unbelievable to me that something I drew is being sold at the Happiest Place on Earth. I'm still a geek and still in love with Disneyland - if anyone's interested to see some of this stuff, try this link (foolish mortals):

http://www.register123.com/profile/web/index.cfm?PKwebID=0x15118481e2&varPage=info

"Cars" illustration

This was for a fun short "Cars" story I illustrated in the 2008 edition of the "Disney Yearbook" (Scholastic). Snot Rod had been speeding through Radiator Springs, annoying everyone, so Lightning McQueen challenged him to a long desert race. Trying to take a short cut through a dangerous area, Snot Rod got stuck in a collapsed mine shaft entrance, and McQueen and friends rescued him. After that, he cleaned up his act and took a job at Flo's Cafe.

It was a great opportunity to gain futher professional experience creating original rough layouts, as well as final pencils. Prior to this book, I had been primarily cleaning up the sketched layouts of other artists. This was a chance to prove myself.

"UP"

Just saw "Up" this weekend and loved it! Pixar has always known exactly how to tug at just the right heartstrings at the right time, as well as take the audience on an exciting and immersive thrill ride. Since "Toy Story 2" I've done freelance art for Disney Publishing's storybooks (mostly Pixar), and I continue to be grateful for the opportunities. These are pencils I did for the "Up" storybook.

Neighbors' new baby!

This is a caricature I did for our neighbors to celebrate their new addition!

Disneyland Official Album Cover Art

It was a personal joy to get to design this cover. Disneyland is the park I grew up with, and where so many memories were made. After designing the composition, I scanned in my drawings of Mickey and Minnie and digitally inked them in Illustrator, then painted them in Photoshop. The background was a combination of new and pre-existing art, with plenty of embellishment and manipulation.

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.

Enchanted Tiki Room 45th anniversary cel

Rough animation - "The Act" Cecropia 2D game

While working at Project Firefly (2004-2007), I animated on a hand-drawn video game called "The Act", along with many other artists from the recently closed Disney Feature Animation Studio in Florida. This was a lot of fun. These are rough animation tests, before cleanup and in-betweens.

Rough animation - "Curious George"

Fantasia Big Fig

Walt Disney Feature Animation 1994-2004