More fun from our day at Downtown Disney!
While walking from West Side towards Disney Village, we came across this live artist demonstration.
Yep, he's painting a couch. And winking at me. Or, you know, "squinting into the sun." Which I think we ALL know means "winking at me."He and his partner also did several canvases:
So fun!Donald was our favorite:
Somehow I've completely forgotten the artists' names, though. Anyone know?
A little further on was this great LEGO mural:
It's not quite finished here; I thinks some of the light blue patches still need to be filled in.On the Village side was all the sidewalk art:
Most were your run-of-the-mill classic paintings or odd abstracts, but a few really stood out:
Chalk art by Anna McCambridgeWOW.
Again I say: WOW.
Sure, it's obligatory promotion art for Tangled, but hey, it looks good!This one made us grin:
It's Zach Galifianakis, with Fruit Loops stuck in his beard. Heh.
Loved the colors in this one:
It was hard to make out the names, but I think it said by Gary Seymour & NC Wyeth.Plus it really reminds me of the art I've seen for BioShock 3:
(If you haven't seen the trailer yet, go check it out. It's cool.)And finally, this artist used one of my favorite pictures on DeviantArt for her drawing:
After we wandered down to the Art of Disney store, we stumbled across the Epic Mickey preview area:
I'd completely forgotten it was going to be there, so we were lucky to arrive 30 minutes before they closed up for the weekend.They had four stations set up to play the game, with large concept art panels behind them:
They also had three animators on hand, drawing sketches for free. I jumped in line for a sketch, and John mosied over to try his hand at the game:
I later joined him and took the game for a 10-minute spin. Considering that I've never played anything on the Wii (unless you count a few rounds of Wii bowling), I did a little better than I expected. Again, this is not saying much.You use both controllers - one in each hand - but the game starts off simply enough that I think I'd get the hang of it eventually. You use the joystick to move, so fortunately the Wii gyrations seem to be kept to a minimum: just the occasional shake for a spin attack, and you point the right hand controller to aim. (That part was definitely the hardest.) There's one trigger per hand: one for paint, one for thinner. I got those mixed up a lot. I also tried four times to jump a simple gap, and failed spectacularly every time. (Ker-splat!) So, like I said: I did better than I expected. :D
It's hard to give a recommendation after such a short time, but I'd definitely like to play and see more of the game.
And finally, here's artist Jason Peltz's hand, drawing me a sketch of Oswald:
And the finished sketch:
D'awwww. I asked Jason to include his website so I could check out his other work, btw, since he's a long-time Disney animator. Hit the link above to check it out.
That wraps up the Festival, but stay tuned for a few photos of my personal "hidden Cake Wreck" on display in Downtown Disney. That Disney doesn't know about. [smiling mysteriously]
LOVE seeing the David Garibaldi on display! (the back of Mickey with the castle in front of him)
ReplyDeleteI love that you still call it the Village, so do I. I wish some of that stuff would hang around for a bit longer because I'm going to be down in the Disney in just a week! Which reminds me, if you are around and want to swing through Jellyrolls for some good times, we'd love to say hi! We can also be found drinking our way around Epcot and going on Dinosaur over and over. Definitely not our dino.
ReplyDeleteRosalind
Girls Are Geeks
I think I may just adore you more after seeing that you like lithiumpicnic's art, and the gorgeous model, Apnea.
ReplyDeleteIt's so good to see Disney stepping beyond the princesses and Pixar hype. What wonderful creations you showed in both posts.
ReplyDeleteSo is Downtown Disney in Disneyland or somewhere else? I haven't been to DL since 1998 (Memorial Day weekend, the weekend the new Tomorrowland opened) so I'm a bit behind on DL information...
Have you seen the Bioshock Infinite literal trailer? It is Hi-larious!
ReplyDeleteRosalind, send me an e-mail with the dates you'll be here; I'd love to meet up! We can have créme brûlée from France and watch Illuminations. Mmmmmm...
ReplyDelete@katphoto: both CA and FL have a Downtown Disney, although ours here in Orlando is quite a distance from any of the parks. In Anaheim it's right outside the gates of DL & DCA.
I like how they had the tvs for the Epic Mickey demo on easels. Also, do you have any ideas on how those artists got permission, or if permission is even required, to reproduce Disney characters? As an artist who paints lots of children's room murals, I would love to know where to start finding that info so that I can avoid getting in trouble.
ReplyDeleteMeghan
Meghan, the artists there all have special agreements with Disney, and I'm sure Disney gets a percentage of their proceeds. Their work is also sold mostly on Disney property or through Disney channels, so it's closely affiliated with the company.
ReplyDeleteTechnically it's illegal to reproduce any Disney characters otherwise, although lots of people still do. (Just look at cakes! Heh.) The muralists we know refuse to do any Disney work, since they have no way of knowing who will see it down the line and possibly report them to Disney Legal. At that point they might only send a cease & desist letter, but then again, they might also sue. Most folks don't consider that a risk worth taking! :)
Thanks for explaining that, Jen! I appreciate it. Man, Disney has changed a lot since I've been there. Time for a trip, especially since they have those deals going online at their website.
ReplyDeleteMeghan, I know several professionals who paint Disney-themed murals without permission. I know they get around it by getting "favors" instead of money, such as gift certificates, maybe borrowing a car for a weekend, whatever. A friend of mine does pony parties, so one of the moms in her circle of friends who is an artist traded a pony party for a mural of the Disney princesses in her daughter's room. As long as you're not actually collecting money for it, you can do it and get away with it. It's when you start collecting money that you can become liable. There could be exceptions to that, though, but so far that's what I've seen professionals do (I know four professional painters who have done this).
Plus, if you're not doing it in a public place and only children's bedrooms or private homes, then you are MUCH less likely to get caught! :)
Those are sooooo beautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely CANNOT wait for Bioshock 3. *Squeals*
Thanks for the answer, Jen! I agree, it's totally not a risk worth taking. I'm not in the business of pissing off the powers-that-be at Disney, or any other franchise for that matter.
ReplyDeleteKatphoti - Thanks for the suggestion! I will have to think on this, although I think it might be best to avoid characters all together and just paint themes. Unless we're talking in my own house where I may or may not have a Super Mario themed mural... ;)
My favorite was the peppermint soap sculpture of Mickey that the Basin folks sponsered. They even gave out soap scraps!
ReplyDeleteThis is my husband and my first Holiday NOT flying to Disney and we are missing the colors and lights something awful. You're pics of Disney helped!
ReplyDeleteP.S. He won his companies costume contest with the Luigi costume I made him and we bought Epic Mickey with his winnings. SUPER EXCITED to play it!!!
All the art pieces were so amazing. I wish I had an ounce of artistic talent. I have none. I can draw stick people, and that's it.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the main reason for this comment is to commend you for ALWAYS giving credit to whomever is due, both on CW and here. It is very telling that you ask the artists for permission before you take pictures, that you try to find out who is responsible for the work, and that you would ask someone to give you a link to their website so that you can send others their way. So many times on the internet, you see people plagerizing and/or blatantly stealing content from other bloggers. It is nice to know that people like you guys still exist. It's one of the main reasons I have such respect for you guys.
So, thanks for giving me continued hope...
I would have appreciated a warning about the deviant art gallery you linked us to. X(
ReplyDeleteThe picture itself was fine, but his gallery is definitely NSFW.
Btw: I believe the lego wall is complete..the "light parts" are actually the white of the "navy" uniform and the ship they are standing in front of...just relax your eyes and it will come to you :)
ReplyDeleteDo you know where I could buy that couch? Or is it like one of those hand-painted furniture thingies where you have to buy them for like $5,000?
ReplyDeleteI was there on Sunday. I know one of the guys doing the couch painting had a nametag that said, "Lee." Doesn't help very much but...
ReplyDeleteI got a drawing of Mickey by a lovely woman who apparently designs pins. (Cool!)
I was jealous though because one of the guys that was there was talking to another person he was drawing for and explaining how Walt lost Oswald (and how they traded Al Micheals to get him back - which, of course, being a Disney geek, I knew!) and he said he was an illustrator for Disney. He said the third artist (who had gotten up and walked away) was an animator. Must have been the one you had your drawing from. We LOVE Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear so I'm bummed I missed meeting a real-life animator.
Still, my Mickey is super cute and I'm going to frame it and hang it up with my Figment sketch I bought last year in Epcot. :)
Thanks for posting pictures of my street painting (and getting my name correct and crediting the original photographer). Most people don't bother. I always try to make sure I give the original artist credit, even though it is considered an "interpretation". The photo was so cool, I had to do it!
ReplyDeleteBTW - someone mentioned in the comments about doing Disney characters. We aren't allowed to use them in the chalk art at this particular event. Disney prohibits it. It's supposed to be more about traditional artworks - masterworks and photos.
NC Wyeth is an artist and an illustrator who was born in 1882, and that looks like his style of illustration. Perhaps this Gary Seymour fellow was recreating an NC Wyeth piece in sidewalk chalk?
ReplyDeleteSorry to geek out on you, but NC's son Andrew is one of my favorite artists of all time.