monstergram7 - Top 3 January 2022

 

The monotonae blog has been a current-works portfolio. It has also been neglected for quite a while. At the end of 2022, I thought that I would at least do some sort of Top 9 or 10 liked postings from my instagram account, monstergram7. There are phone apps that will filter that kind of thing, but for reasons I didn’t like the results, not the least of which is the inclusion of the 2021 “Top 9” post. I felt that the pool ought to be limited to the original posts. So in brute force manner in went back through my posts to see what the top 10 were, and in the process I could determine the tops by each month.

And now here I am, beginning a month by month accounting of the top 3.

#1- Cinderella’s Broken Coach (ballpoint pen ink on paper napkin). 

I had drawn this in a Carl’s Jr. one morning while waiting out work being done on my car, so the vehicle repair theme was at the forefront of my mind. Playing around with stylizing the Disney princess is a frequent part of my 9-to-5 job.

 

#2- World Pictographic Icons from a D23 Map (digital). 

This square of 3 is just one of many that features the pictographs that I designed to embellish a map for the D23 Disney Fan Club. The map that I had created is just the backing board for the real prize- a set of enamel pins each representing a different Disney resort plus the Disney Cruise Line. The inspiration for the style was Rolly Crump’s animals for “it’s a small world” attraction that compliments Mary Blair’s  fanciful designs.

#3- Poppy Jean, Tiger (black ink and color pencil on paper).

Poppy is another of my attempts to develop a pin-up/cheesecake character design in my own style, whatever that is. Many successful artists can be identified by how they draw and paint beautiful women: Dan DeCarlo, Frank Frazetta, Alberto Varga, Olivia Berardinis, and the list goes on. However, I get in my own way because so much of my 9-to-5 job is to be a style mimic, and not a style originator.

I think some time in 2021, I had drawn a loose princess character, which I thought could be the basis of that pin-up. Even now, I’ve not settled on a distinct design, but just to be contrarian, she’s keeping the glasses.

I had explored perhaps two dozen different names. I perhaps settled on “Poppy” because I frequent do my initial sketches with a Poppy Red Col-Erase color pencil. The second name, Jean came about because I liked the three syllable rhythm. It won out over Poppy Anne, Poppy Jo and several others.

The costume is a nod to the Lunar calendar Year of the Tiger for 2022.

Mapplicable

 D23, The Official Disney Fan Club, has announced the 2022 D23 Gold Member Collector Set. It’s the exclusive gift that every new and renewing member receives.

For more information about the club, please go to the D23 site, naturally: https://d23.com

My contribution to the set, was a world map that is the backing board for the real prizes that are a seven-piece set of exclusively designed enamel pins. Each pin features one of the six Disney theme Park Resorts plus a seventh for the Disney Cruise Line. To be clear, another artist designed the pins.

All two-dimensional maps are necessarily stylized representations of three-dimensional features existing on a spherical globe. In this, I chose to build the land masses from circles and parts of circles and a few straight lines.

The characters and things iconography on the final piece of art are all blues, teals and purples so as not to compete with the pins. 

However, there were more colorful early versions.

conceptual sketches

Many of the animal elements are inspired by those found on the “it’s a small world” attraction: hippopotamus, tiger, penguin, llama, kangaroo, and goose. I think the animals for the attraction are more Rolly Crump designs inspired by Mary Blair’s stylization than purely coming from Blair’s work for the boat ride. Keying off of the style, I chose other animals and things as nods to other Disney things.

Sea Serpent - Disneyland’s defunct Submarine Voyage attraction

Parrot - Rosita from Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, Adventureland

African Bull Elephant - Jungle Cruise attraction, Adventureland.

Polar Bear - Walt Disney’s White Wilderness (1958)

Big Horned Sheep - Grand Canyon diorama, part of Disneyland’s Railroad experience

Baobob Tree - Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction

Steam Locomotive - Walt Disney’s love of trains

Baby Oyster - Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland

Moose - Disney’s Brother Bear

Aulani Resort and Spa main building

747 Jet Airplane - Intended align with the “travel” theme to embellish a title box that didn’t get included on the map

London Tower and Notré Dame Cathedral couldn’t fit on the map and were eliminated as candidates

I am pleasantly surprised to see that the D23 designers had taken the purple grid pattern I had created for the map’s oceans for the background and repurposed it for the collection’s passport cover. For this pattern, I was inspired by the tiles of the Mary Blair murals that once flanked the Tomorrowland corridor in Disneyland. In fact, the square tiles were cut from a larger pattern of waves and mixed up. It is possible that many of the tiles can be reassembled in a few continuous lines. That’s trivia, not a challenge.

conceptual sketches

early green & blue version

exploratory purple & yellow version

early red & purple version

Eyes 'n Ears

Continuing my Behind-The-Sketch coverage of the map the I designed and draw for the D23 2020 Gold Member gift- D23 Fantastic Worlds package. This time I have for you a complete accounting of the 23 Mickeys that I hid on the map.

These clipping were composed for Instagram, but I think that they work as helpful keys to each of the 23 “hidden Mickeys.” Each square is a detail shot, clearly, to my eyes, showing the Hidden Mickey with sufficient contextual surroundings and framed to indicate the map coordinates where each may be found.

For example, in this first square, within or mostly-within the box that is the map coordinates of B-16 you will find something designed to resemble Mickey Mouse. It could be his head in part or full, or a simple 3-cicle representation of his familiar head silhouette.

This last hidden Mickey is either the most obvious or the most hidden Mickey of them all. For those of you who still want the thrill of finding it yourselves, but require a hint, then here’s the hint: turn the map up-side-down.

A funny thing happened while I was drawing this map and hiding Mickeys- I may have drawn some accidental Mickeys too. Have I been working for Disney too long? These two were spotted by my brother’s coworkers whom I assume spent part of their lunch break combing through the map.

And now here are all 23 intentional HM’s pulled together in a high-contrast chart (click on the image to maximize):

That’s not all of the things that I hid in this map, but, I’ll just have to reveal those at a later time. Or you can comment with your theories about what you think you have spotted (by map coordinates, please) and I will confirm if I can.

Happy mapping.

– Bryan Mon.

Questing and Answers

About a year ago in 2019 I was putting the finishing touches and revisions on a map that I designed and drew to be but one component of the D23 2020 Gold Member gift, a.k.a. the D23 Fantastic Worlds package. Here, I answer some questions about the map.

#1 - A List

“Did they give you a list of all the movies or character to include or how did that work deciding all that?” – @54hiroshi on IG

 
A: Yes, the D23 group had an original speculative list that included Disney, Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel locations. By the time I was given the green light to start, the working list was trimmed to only locations from Disney and Pixar films, T.V. And parks with 17 locations that they “loved to have” and additional 62 any of which if they fit. A separate list of 16 Easter eggs had vehicles to add “if they fit.” Working collaboratively with them, while also receiving feedback from Disney-loving around me, the map grew to its final state with 162 locations, 47 vehicles and 55 characters that I added for more visual interest and added liveliness.

#4 - Placing Places

“How did you decide what places to put near each other? Was it just based on what places looked similar?” – @inked_and_painted on IG

 
A: Mostly, the things were put in similar temperate regions constrained within a fantastic continental mass, and not adhering to appearance or where they might exist on our Earth. Knowing that a lot of stories occur in old forests, those thing live close together in the upper middle. Curiously, a lot of stories occurred near water features, so the map has lots of rivers, lakes and shore lines. Of course, everything that’s urban based got fitted into the lower left portion. It decidedly is not a representation of the Earth as we know it.

#5 - Picking from Pics

 

“How did you decide what to put from each movie and/or show?” – @harishas.arton IG

 
A: Primarily, this was to be a map of recognizable places from Disney and Pixar properties. Such things include the spectrum from houses and shops to cities to kingdoms to countries to mountains. Each also had to have been visualized previously, so while I was stylizing things, I wasn’t making things up from nothing. Some “too real” things included Notre Dame cathedral, the Eiffel Tower. As fans, we dove deep into Disney and Pixar history.

#6 - Pocahontas, Hunchback, Atlantis and Tarzan

“Are anything from Pocahontas, Hunchback, Atlantis and Tarzan included on the map?” – @harishas.art on IG

 
A: In order: yes, no, yes, and yes, although they’re not tagged things. Happy hunting.

#7 - Challenge To the Fans

“Were there any specific places or items on the map you thought of that even hardcore fans wouldn’t recognize?” – @hikariemiru on IG

 

A: I myself had to look up what Astragard and what Knocknasheega were (hint: the first is at the proper side of the world and isn’t Thor’s home realm and the second has to do with leprechauns). I was happy to find space for Mathmagicland. I think everything is gettable, at least by some Disney fan somewhere. If you think you’ve found something special or hidden, let me know to confirm.

#8 - Not Making the Cut

 

“Which ones didn't make the cut?” – @grimmcookies on IG

 

A: I could almost make a second map from things not included on this map. If a property was well represented, we limited items, so the Snuggly Duckling didn’t make it. Leaning into the “Fantastic” part of the title, a lot of real things got left out like Ayers Rock/Uluru and the Palace of Westminster clock tower. Many, many of the Disney channel kid-coms and their suburban settings and high schools got passed over with the map already hosting a middle school, a high school and a college. But a few things actually got erased and drawn over: Herbie, the Cadillac Range and a briar patch. Cape Suzette was moved to a place where I could add the protective white wall rock enclosure displacing Rapunzel’s kingdom in the process to be located elsewhere on the map.

#9 - Planning Time

“How long did it take you to plan the map design?” – Kim Henry on FB

 
A: From mid July to mid October in 2019, I spent 3 months on the map, from my first conceptual sketch, through drawing it in pencil and ink on paper, through digital color to laying in final text and graphics. There were a few rounds of revisions in there too. The drawing and coloring parts were all being done concurrently, so I don’t really know how many Mon-hours (pun!) were devoted to just drawing it.

More about the D23 2020 Fantastic Worlds Map:

Watch some unboxing videos featuring the D23 2020 Golf Member gift-

https://monotonae.blogspot.com/2020/09/map-in-box.html

My basic description in conjunction with the January announcement of the 2020 gift-
https://monotonae.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-mappiest-world-in-place.html

 

More answers to come if more questions are tossed to me. 

– Bryan Mon.