Over 16 consecutive days to celebrate Walt Disney World’s 50th birthday, I filled a Disneyland autograph book with 50 Disney Parks themed sketches. Each sketch was the result of what I call an improv style mixing up and random reassembling of folk’s deconstructed suggestions pitched to me on Instagram. By comparison, in 2020 to celebrate Disneyland’s 65th birthday, I drew 50 sketches in an autograph book over the 17 days leading up to July 17, the birthday day. However in 2020, I was on furlough and had more time for 3+ a day sketches.
Here are the top 10 liked pieces of the 50 with additional stories not part of their brief, daily blog postings:
#1, pp. 10-11 - Han and Leia taking little Ben / just strolling the park!:
Suggestions by Nicole P. / @harishas.art.
This family from the Star Wars stories is totally up for artistic interpretation, since currently there aren’t any filmed canon depiction of them when Ben was a child.
I feel that Han would continue to wear white shirts and black or dark colored vests and jackets.
For Leia, I feel she’ll have braided hair and a practical outfit akin to the fatigues she wore in Return of the Jedi.
2x hidden Mickeys.
Thing I drew that no one asked for: Liberty Square outside of the “Hall of Presidents.”
#2, pp. 50-51 - Chip and Dale / pop up pin shop:
Suggestions by Jeff S. / @vbehappy
There’s no telling how the comparative sizes of the characters and locales and tell-tale architecture and features will affect the scene composition and story. With the chipmunks being no taller than the pins being sold and the pin trading cart, I thought zooming in on Chip and Dale was more interesting that showing the cart.
While the duo could have fun with the pins found there, it doesn’t appear as if they have then means to trade pins much less purchase them.
2x hidden Mickeys.
Thing I drew that no one asked for: Daisy Duck.
#3, pp. 100-101 - Mickey and Minnie / the Hitchhiking Ghosts / Magic Kingdom hub / sharing the Kitchen Sink sundae:
Suggestions by Jeff S. / @realmarkd / Jeff S / Nicole P.
If I color the sky yellow, it’s usually because I want the scene to be happy.
As the final sketch of the book, I selected this suggestion combination from the last four combinations to be the last because Mickey and Minnie were the characters. For the final three sketches, I pulled a second character suggestion as an embellishment and for this one, it happened to be the Haunted Mansion’s hitchhiking ghosts.
The Kitchen Sink sundae suggestion was pulled from the last few remaining props and purposefully matched to Mickey and Minnie because it matched better than the other final four character/attraction combinations.
The birthday salutation came about partly because I couldn’t think of a funny exchange between the mice and the ghosts.
2x hidden Mickeys.
1 hidden baby oyster.
#4, pp. 2-3 - Goofy / visiting Be Our Guest Restaurant:
Suggestions by @the_kira_diaries / @nikkistar5394
As the first sketch of the series, perhaps it’s high ranking has to do with it having the most time to attract eyes and likes on Instagram. Perhaps it benefitted from the excitement of the novelty of this series?
At the left is Gaston in silhouette. At the right is Belle greeting guests in silhouette.
2x hidden Mickeys.
#5, pp. 68-69 - Chip and Dale / dancing at Jellyrolls / watching the Dalmatians play:
Suggestions by Jeff S. / @motheroffreels / Nicole P.
A big part of “Jellyrolls” is their dueling pianos. While the suggestion combo has no obligation to depict two baby grand pianos, I thought one piano should be part of the scene and the glossy finish of the piano top would make for a good dance floor for the characters. Joe Gardner as the pianist has everything to do with the recentness of the film Soul. Alternates could be Mickey, Donald or Roger Radcliffe (to match the Dalmatians).
I had thought that I might have Chip and Dale dressed in their Rescue Rangers costumes. That is until I came across images of the animated short Two Chips and a Miss. Having the pair wearing tuxedos and including Clarice as a dance partner just fell into place.
“Playing” Dalmatian pups turned from “playing games” to “playing instruments.”
3x hidden Mickeys.
Thing I drew that no one asked for: Clarice, bongos and a violin played as a bass fiddle.
#6, pp. 30-31 - Kida and Ariel / in Typhoon Lagoon / carrying a 50th anniversary cupcake:
Suggestions by @kmwright222 / @nikkistar5394 / Jeff S.
If you look closely, the cupcake in Kida’s hand has a “50” emblazoned on it. However, by looks alone, I’ll understand if the cupcakes aren’t recognizable.
It’s a remarkable coincidence that these two swimming princesses would find themselves matched with the Typhoon Lagoon water park. I didn’t arrange it to be so.
2x hidden Mickeys.
1x hidden baby oyster.
#7, pp. 6-7 - The Princess and the Frog characters and Br’er Rabbit / (going) "around the world" at Epcot:
Suggestions by @caitlinfogartyart / @the_kira_diaries
As it was “artist’s choice” for which part of Epcot to feature, France seemed perfectly suitable for Tiana and friends with New Orleans having such strong French influences.
Here again, I use yellows and golds to convey happiness.
3x hidden Mickeys.
#8, pp. 94-95 - Flynn and Rapunzel / in Mickey’s PhilharMagic / taking shots/drinking:
Suggestions by @alltookayleigh / @yooo_gert / @the_kira_diaries
The story of “PhilharMagic” has Donald attempting to head off chaos as he chases the wayward sorcerer’s hat through several Disney sequences recreated in glorious three-dimensional CGI. One of the segments is Lumiere’s performance of “Be Our Guest” which fits well with the “drinking” prompt.
3x hidden Mickeys.
#9, pp. 60-61 - Ariel and Eric / on Pirates of the Caribbean / getting spooked:
Suggestions by @nikkistar5394 / Abigail R / @alltookayleigh
I suppose the spookiest part of “The Pirates of the Caribbean” attraction is in the section with skeletons posed in various vignette, even if most are touched with a dark humor.
The purplish stormy sky is an experiment where normally one might see a black or indigo sky. It at least contrasts with the wreck and skeleton.
2x hidden Mickeys.
1x hidden baby oyster.
#10, pp. 40-41 - Russel with Carl and Dug / at the Emporium:
Suggestions by @vbehappy / @kmwright222
I counted 3x true hidden Mickeys here. Any other Mickey is intentionally a plush doll Mickey.
I challenged folks to find as much as they could in the pile of plush dolls, but it would be easier to understand my intentions had I colored it. Then you could identify the princesses by their different hair color.
More About What I Had Drawn Those Days
Luck of the Draw
As I had described in the announcement and call for suggestions, the things that I drew were the random recombination of deconstructed suggestions that folks pitched in the week leading up to October 1st. Each suggestion was broken up into three categories of prompts: characters, Disney Parks thing and embellishments which could be props or action. All of that was printed out, cut up as slips of paper and put in assigned buckets to be pulled randomly.
Rather than pull prompts for one suggestion combo at a time. I did so four at a time. I kept the best three. From those three, I choose one to be the “every third” to be finished in full color.
Because it was my intention to draw Disney characters (those characters currently owned by the Disney Company) enjoying Disney Parks experiences drawn in a Disneyland autograph book, when I pulled one of the two non-Disney character prompts submitted, I then pulled a second character prompt to be the featured actor(s), and put the non-Disney character in the background.
The other bit of jiggering I did with the suggestions happened at the end with the last four suggestion combinations. Here, I purposefully picked from all of the remaining slips the four character prompts that I liked, and matched them with the four Disney Parks things that I liked and randomly pulled a few embellishment prompts too. Lastly, I pulled second character prompt for the final three. That’s how I ended with Mickey and Minnie in the final sketch.
Good Even-ings
I drew on the odd numbered pages, the right sided pages when you open a book.
The time, I did preliminary sketches on the left sided pages. It was good practice for characters that I hadn’t drawn before. It was a nice exercise to play with expressions on a larger scale than the final sketch. On some, I worked out some technical issues like tiny character size comparison charts.
Photos of the even-odd page spreads were shared only on this blog, where only the final odd pages were shared on Instagram and Facebook.
What Disney World Book
I purchased several Disneyland autograph books from ShopDisney online store last year with the specific intention to do sketch series like this. When I decided to celebrate Walt Disney World’s 50th birthday with the marathon task of fifty sketches in an autograph book, I knew that I had books on hand. However, I assumed them to be generic Disney branded books, and didn’t order any Walt Disney World branded books.
A-Hoy, Captions!
If I do have a rule regarding when to have dialogue word balloons in these single panel comics, it’s if it needs it then I’ll add it. I’m certainly happy to not add dialogue if it’s not necessary. Other times, I’ll leave the comic be because I couldn’t think of anything in the way of dialog.
For example, for the scene of Carl, Russell and Dug in the Emporium, I wondered if Carl should say something. Nothing that I could think of was funny. I’m not very good with “Caption this” challenges.
Thank You
Thank you to the following folks to pitch ideas that ended up in this book:
On Instagram:
_jilliano124_ • akoymdf • alltookayleigh
anek.art001 • ani8tor57 • art3mis8182
bowling_and_bowties91 • caitlinfogartyart • cr8ture
elicid • elijones94 • fletchthis
harishas.art • herreriamon • jayrodesign
jessiemind • kmwright222 • lysette.v.e
madesalvo • mascotdrawings • mannysmyname
motheroffreels • nikkistar5394 • realmarkd
rod_j_sloan • spanky.bear • stevedelacruz.16
swampboyes • the_kira_diaries • vbehappy
yooo_gert • zoe.with.twodots
On Facebook:
Nicole P. • Kinzey F. • Abigail R.
On Blog and D.M.:
Jeff S.
