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.