A Look Inside "The Art of the Disney Princess"

I mentioned in a previous post HERE about an unusual art book coming from Disney, titled "The Art of the Disney Princess". It features different artist's interpretations (in their medium of choice) of different Disney princesses. From illustration to photography the pictures range from playing with realism to metaphoric interpretations and more.

It's just been released in the last week (or so) and some artists have shared their artistic contributions on their blogs.

From the official blurb:

Every little girl has a favorite Disney Princess--and for that matter, every grown-up girl, too! In The Art of the Disney Princess, Disney artists, designers, illustrators, and animators from around the world have re-imagined their favorite princesses and portrayed them in a variety of mediums. Ariel, Aurora, Belle, Jasmine, Snow White, and Cinderella are newly incarnated in water color, pastel, oil paint, colored pencil, mixed media, and computer graphics pieces that range from the traditional to the unconventional. This artwork has been created especially for this museum-quality book, which is sure to delight art lovers, Disney collectors, and any prince or princess who ever believed that fairytales do come true.

Photographic interpretation of Disney Princesses Snow White & Jasmine
by Ryan Astamendi
(click for a larger view - recommended)

Pictured above (along with the front of the book) is a photographic interpretation by Ryan Astamendi (whose blog you can find HERE).

Jasmine & the Magic Lamp
(I love this one too)
by Stacey Aoyama

Belle
by Stacey Aoyama
(you can see Stacey's blog HERE)

Here's a number of signed prints I found for sale on EBay during the Disney Expo (close-ups are available to see HERE):
Nice to see Tiger Lily there! Here's a close-up, simply because I rarely see art with her as the subject, plus, it's lovely:

Princess of Never Land
by Cathy Clark

The Little Mermaid 'Movie Poster'
by Eric Tan.

I particularly like his Sleeping Beauty interpretation below.
Sleeping Beauty 'Movie Poster'
by Eric Tan

From Eric Tan's BLOG about the project:

Ever since I started designing posters, I've always had this goal of creating my very own versions for all the animated Disney films. Those classics have had such an impact on my art and my career, that I wanted to do it almost as a tribute to the importance they had on me as a kid. Disney Consumer Products had a cool idea going when they decided to ask a bunch of internal artists to put their artistic spin on the Princesses for a book that was just released, The Art of Disney Princess. You can almost guess immediately what I wanted to do with my pieces. Yup, MOVIE POSTERS!!!

There was an event held, also called "The Art of the Disney Princess", to support the book launch and NERDLIKE.COM had a representative there to report on the show and take some photos to post. From the blog:

The Art of the Disney Princess is exactly what it sounds like, a celebration of the animated empire’s fair ladies. Disney commissioned 10 artists from Disney Global Consumer Products to re-imagine the Disney princesses. The results were dope to say the least. The event, hosted at the Zune LA house/building, was set up like an art gallery. The front room housed a collection of art pieces accompanied by its Disney Couture clothing counterpart. Each piece represented a different princess in the artists own unique styling....

...The second room upstairs was more like an art museum with pieces on the wall. From the abstract to a little weird, each piece retained the essence of the original princess, but somehow set it apart in a way that they felt authentic and real. Gone were the traditional aesthetics of the Disney cookie cutter princess. These artists had introduced the princesses to a whole new world (no pun intended). In addition to the transformation of the princesses, you could see each artists individual style and inspiration. Several pieces even escaped the realm of Disney and looked like pieces anyone would hang on their wall.

You can read the rest of the news about the show and see many more pictures HERE.

It's a real shame the event was limited to a select group and isn't on display for the public. The Disney Couture princess collection from the show will be on display at Kitson LA in February 2010 but this doesn't include all the pieces, of course. Even those who aren't fans of Disney (or who cringe when they hear the word 'princess' like I do) could enjoy a gallery showing like this! At least some of it has been put into a book for us.

You can find the book on Amazon.com - currently at 34% off - and see a lot of page samples HERE.