Happy Birthday Disneyland

Herb Ryman created some fantastic art for Disney.  Among them are images that represent New Orleans Square, Epcot, and Tokyo Disneyland, each painted before the individual subjects were actually created.  Of his work, my favorite is the first concept drawing of Sleeping Beauty Castle.

My first quarter in art school, we were tasked to re-create a master art piece.  I chose to try my hand at Ryman's Castle.  As much as I enjoy creating digital art, this was a freehand drawing class, so I this subject because it is near and dear to my heart.  I never claimed to be a stellar artist, and freehand is not my forte, but I was very pleased with my results.  (And I got an "A" on it, too!)

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Ryman Castle Reproduction

The following week in class, the assignment was to re-draw this piece.  The catch was that is needed to be done in black and white, only using grey scales to represent color and shadow.

Ryman Castle B/W Reproduction

A couple years later, I took the opportunity to revisit these favorite drawings of mine.  Since the original drawing was created to represent something that was in the process of design and building, I reworked my version to also represent the creative design process in action.

Ryman Castle Creation Reproduction

On this day, 56 years ago, the actual Sleeping Beauty Castle made its debut.  The real thing varied somewhat from this first sketch.  The story is told of the model for the castle in which Walt Disney preferred the upper floors turned backwards.  Today, this view of the upper floors can be seen from inside the castle walls in Fantasyland.

H A P P Y  B I R T H D A Y

D I S N E Y L A N D ! !