Hitchhiking Ghosts lanyard pin

I had a lot of fun with this lanyard pin. We so often see the Hitchhiking Ghosts (unofficially named Phineas, Ezra and Gus) represented just as they are in the Haunted Mansion, it's fun to give them a different pose once in a while... as long as they continue to thumb a ride to fill their quotas!

If you look closely at the art, I included their initials. See if you can find plump Phineas' "P", eerie Ezra's "E" and grandpa Gus' "G"!

The Incredibles storybook

This is an illustration I penciled for "The Incredibles" storybook art pool. (The officer on the far right is a caricature of Alex Topete, my first supervisor back at Walt Disney Feature Animation.)

Incredibles 5th Anniversary pin

This is one of the very last pins I designed for the Disney Design Group last year, about this time. I've always enjoyed interpreting the Pixar characters into 2D drawings - it's like re-imagining the films as if they were traditionally animated. The interesting thing about Pixar merchandise is that there are three levels of stylization: 3D computer-generated renderings from the studio, highly-detailed and accurate drawings used for creating sculptures or big figs, and simplified art like this pin. Most of my Pixar experience is from the opportunities I've had to work on children's book illustration, and I'll always be grateful for that.

"Cars" Off-road Racers book

I was excited to see this Cars book on the local supermarket shelf the other day (it's one of those 2-in-1 books with a bunch of stickers in the middle). A little over a year ago, I had the pleasure of laying out and penciling the "Off-road Racers" story, which included a new character named El Machismo, a big Dodge monster truck. These stories are based on the new Cars Race-o-Rama video game. David Murray, a background painter for many of Disney's animated films (as well as an excellent screenwriter and novelist), did the digital paints for much of this book. Neither of us knew about each other's work on it until it came up in conversation, while we were working together on "The Princess and the Frog". It's a Small World!

Disney pins

I finally put together a visual collection of all the pins I worked on while at the Disney Design Group, from 2007 - 2009. Just click on the image to see them larger.

Below are all the Haunted Mansion pins and pin sets I designed.

"Spooky Sound" book

Here is one of the page spreads from the Cars "Spooky Sound" book that I illustrated.

Biblical portraits

I have always been intrigued by portraits, and even more by the people written of in the Bible. It's no wonder that so much art through the centuries has been focused on biblical subjects. (These were sketched on post-it notes, not exactly frescos.)

The Beast

I drew this for a friend several years ago. If you look closely, you can see a small reflection of Belle in the glass. I still remember enjoying "Beauty and the Beast" at its Hollywood premiere in 1991, at the freshly restored El Capitan theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

Florida wildlife

This was for the press page of Project Firefly's website. Aside from the actual firefly, I designed all the Floridian reporters and painted everything on Photoshop.

Children's books for Paradise Press

These are some of the books I illustrated for Paradise Press. I designed all the characters, and had fun drawing them in their little adventures.

Concepts for Tomorrowland stage show

These are concept sketches I did back in 2006 for Disney Entertainment, for a "Meet the Robinsons" stage show that never materialized.

High hopes for "UP"

These are some images I penciled for the Up storybook. "Up" has been nominated for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards! I don't think an animated film has had that honor since "Beauty and the Beast", back in 1991.