Digital oil painting… Peter Pan’s Flight (Click for a larger view)

Cafe Vignette (Click for a larger, detail view)

Photo painting of a beautiful, quiet spot at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It had rained all morning and the park was fairly desolate when I discovered this little cafe. It is across from the popular Yak and Yeti restaurant. There is a nice sunken patio behind the building to the rear.

Concept style art. Jungle Cruise ride model. (Click for high quality view)

Using several new-to-me photo painting techniques here to show a very unique view of a classic Disney attraction, The Jungle Cruise.

If you have read any of my other entries you’ll know I am enthralled with Disney master artists and Imagineers. I love displaying their sketches and watercolors around my office for inspiration with my daily work as a Creative Director and tourism photographer. Perhaps like you The Art of Disney stores in the parks are one of my favorite attractions, no FastPass required!

For this photo painting I took some shots at One Man’s Dream over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, another must-see attraction. This scene is from a model of the Jungle Cruise used for Disneyland. Having a table top or flexible tripod is a must for One Man’s Dream so you can shoot multiple, aperture priority photos without flash. That also means taking lots of shots if the attraction is busy and other guests wander right through a long exposure. No super expensive DSLR camera required, but if you can shoot RAW mode by all means do it! Shooting through the plexiglass with theatrical style lighting was a bit tricky, but nothing Photoshop and multiple exposures couldn’t handle. I confess I did drop in a sky because the top of the plexiglass case was washed in a weird pink light and just a total visual distraction. Then I used several pieces of software, Photoshop actions, layers, masks and blending modes to achieve the effect I like.

Hope you enjoy it. I plan to do a few more and post soon.

Mark

The American Adventure Patriot

Photo painting of a character portrayal in the Fife and Drum Corps at EPCOT in the American Adventure area.

Tomorrowland Entrance Sign, Magic Kingdom

Ingenious how Disney meshes a Jetson’s retro feel with the future. The Anna font is also a perfect fit. Shown above is another digital painting from an original photo. Click on the photo for a better, larger view.

Photo painting of Captain Jack Sparrow

I did a total double take when this actor playing Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean came out for a show in Adventureland at the Magic Kingdom. The crowd was delighted.

Neptune fountain, Italy - EPCOT

Like other great architecture at Walt Disney World this has a real-life inspiration, Bernini’s Neptune fountain.

Walt Disney’s Carousel Of Progress

This has to be one of my all time favorite attractions. It is a challenging shoot though, especially if you follow the rules… “No flash photography!” I usually position myself near the front of the auditorium with a tiny tabletop tripod and take long exposures. Flash would look horrible anyway and HDR would be extremely difficult because the animatronics are almost always in some sort of motion.

This is another “photographic” or digital painting. I love the work of Disney master artists such as Peter Ellenshaw and like to bring a bit of that fine art edge to my photos.

Snow White photographic

Continuing with the unofficial “princess series.” Photoshop drawing and paint treatment on a mural featured in Snow White’s Scary Adventures.