Blog #10: My Disney Princess Lineup

So this is a side project that I've been working on for over a year now and have taken it up again during my free time at college. People have asked why I'm working on a picture of the Disney Princesses and that's a complicated question. For one, I'm a Disney fan. All things disney but the Disney Princess films just happen to be an area that I've developed a bit of an expertise. Secondly, they're cartoon figures which are much easier to work with on the computer. And Thirdly, I actually find working on the computer more theraputic than working with a pencil. But the whole project really has helped me work on my technique with digital restorations which is something I find to thoroughly enjoy.

Also many people ask "did you draw that?" "how did you make that?". It's actually a tad complicated. So that's what this blog entry is gonna be about. It'll probably be a several-part series as it's still an ongoing project. So I guess I'll start at the begining then.

I can hardly take full credit for the final image because really it has been a mixture of combined works from other artist and original alterations by myself. As a 'touch up' artist...I hardly make anything myself. I only alter it (sometimes to a point beyond recognition) The above image is the original unadulterated picture that I found online. I was surprised because its over 4300x3300 pixels which is INCREDIBLE large and thus has a high resolution. This always makes zooming in and photo manipulation much much easier.




First attempt to add Tiana

 

So I originally had only one alteration in mind when I started, that was to superimpose Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog into the lineup. Her film was due to come out soon and I had yet to see her intergrated into the fray. I figured I'd please a slew of people and be the first to do it. The first attempted was not as crisp as I would have liked. While the first image was HUGE the best, full-body picture of Tiana that I could find couldn't have been more than 600pixals tall which is average. Also this was before I had really figured out the software I use. I use PhotoImpression which is like Photoshop for visual learners. The icons are few, organized, and have big unmistakable pictures. Anyhoo, in the first attempt, Tiana had a blured outline and was not of the same color value as the other girls and while the other girls make eye contact with the viewer, she's looking off to the right. It's actually stated by the merchandising department that the princesses are never supposed to make eye contact with eachother. After posting this I soon found out that it had spread to other websites and because I wasn't particularly pleased with it I tried deleting it from where I had posted it but it was too late. Its stuck out there in cyperspace.

So after several months I found a better high-definition image of Tiana. I'm not sure whether it was fanmade or released by the Disney marketing department. Nonetheless it had a white background with made things all the more easier and she also had a similiar shading and coloring to the other girls. Pluse she was looking at the viewer. It was perfect. Here I seperated Pocahontas and Belle into two seperate layers. Then I used the smart select tool to delete the white surrounding Tiana and simply stuck her inbetween the two layers. Because some of her was missing I had to create a new right arm and shoulder for Belle by simply copying her left arm and flipping it over and blending it in.

 So essentially this is a case where I simply took two existing pieces of work and superimposed them not altering them in anyway. But before posting it. Something came to my attention that has always bugged be about the Disney Princess merchandise: Cinderella is in a blue dress and has bright yellow hair. As I remember quite clearly her dress was silver and her hair had a distinct red/orange hue. Also Aurora was always in her pink dress and she too had bright yellow/almost orang hair. She spends most of the fim in a blue dress and her hair was a rustic blonde. So off the bat that was my next alteration. I simply selected an area using a smart select tool, copied it, and then altered the hue, light, and saturations to get a look I felt was more accurate.

You may notice that two of the princesses are not in anything exactly "princessy". I would soon remedy that. Next blog I'll take about how I go on to alter some of the dresses and actually created something original. Till the next bored day.