Disney sketches

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As the resident artist of the family, I own more art supplies and sketchbooks than I’d like to admit. As a result of my fall college semester not starting back up for a couple weeks, I have loads of free time. I chose looking at this free time with a creative perspective. My time needed to be spent creatively so I decided to use this free time to fill some sketch books.  A fun way to accomplish this project would be to browse Pinterest and see if there were any drawing or painting challenges that sparked my interest. Disney sketches seem to jump out at me.

Decisions, Decisions

After looking at many different challenges, I decided to make my sketches Disney themed. I figured this  would be a perfect fit because of the obsession I had with Disney as a kid. Even as an adult, I am still obsessed with Disney. I think that’s partly because I finally fulfilled my childhood dream of being able to visit Disneyland. Also, because there is so many different characters to choose from, I should have no problem filling up a few of my sketchbooks.

For part one of my Disney sketching series, I wanted to start off by sketching my favorite female Disney characters. Due to my obsession, I grew up watching lots of Disney films and I must admit I have quite a few favorites from the late 80s and early 2000s era. I felt that it was fitting that my first sketch would be Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

Disney sketches Ariel

During that time period there was a lot of Disney Princess films and I often found myself watching them.
I love The Little Mermaid because of the passion Ariel shows for a world she has never known. While Ariel wanted to be “where the people are,” I wanted to be where the mermaids were. Young me knew I couldn’t really become a mermaid, but no one told me I couldn’t pretend. I still have fond memories of times when I would sing the songs from the movie or try to be Ariel whenever my family and I went swimming. Since I am an adult now, I don’t play make believe, but I still find joy in watching The Little Mermaid when I can.

For my Disney sketches project, I used a simple sketchbook that I had picked up at Walmart. It wasn’t costly, but it still would be durable enough to hold the pages well. As for pencils, I sketched the layout in HB pencil. As I have discussed in my previous posts, I typically use Daler Rowney pencils because they are the cheap and convenient, but any brand of HB pencil will do the job just fine.

Time to get to work Sketching

After sketching the layout. I darkened in my details and then blended the lines using blending tortillons to give her hair a smooth look. After I felt satisfied with the look of my sketch, I decided to shade it in with colored pencils.

I usually use a premium brand of colored pencil such as Prismacolor for my shading.  It gives a less waxy and more refined appearance to the sketch than cheaper brands of colored pencils. I have used cheaper brands of colored pencils in the past and they got the job done. But I wanted to find the one that felt right.  I experimented with the premium colored pencils a few years ago.  I liked how the Prismacolor felt in my hand  and the look they gave to my sketches.  They out performed other brands I tried, so I’ve used them ever since.

Day 2 Disney Sketches

On day two of my Disney sketching series, I decided to sketch Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Belle has always been one of my favorite female Disney characters because she wears blue and has brown hair just like me. The brown hair was important to me because I have always felt that there weren’t many female characters that had brown hair on the small screen. Once I saw that Belle was featured with brown hair and was regarded as smart and brave, I felt that I could be that way too.

To gain some inspiration before starting my sketch, I decided to listen to The Beauty and the Beast Soundtrack while I sketched the layout. Taking my HB pencil, I sketched out the layout. When I was satisfied with the look of the layout, I began to add in the details. Once all the details were added, I erased any stray lines. Following this, I took a 2B pencil and darkened the pupils of her eyes and outlines in her hair. After my sketch was completed, I blended the lines using blending tortillons to give the details a smooth look. After blending, I used my colored pencils to shade my sketch and bring the character I had grown up watching to life.

Day 3 Disney Sketches

On day three of my Disney sketching series, I chose to sketch Jasmine from Aladdin. Ever since I was little, the cartoon version of Aladdin has had a special place in my heart. I watched it so many times that I could probably quote Jasmine’s dialogue word for word still to this day. Jasmine was one of my favorite princesses because like Belle, Jasmine wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. I also like the fact that she was willing to explore the world outside her castle walls. I felt like that took bravery that most people wouldn’t expect her to have and I always liked that about her.

To begin sketching Jasmine, I sketch the layout with an HB pencil and then add the details. While sketching, I took most of my time working on her eyes and mouth, which are the most intricate parts of her face. When all the details had been sketched, I used a 2B pencil to darken the outline of her body. I was satisfied with the appearance of the outline, I blended the lines of my sketch using a blending tortillon to give my sketch a smooth appearance. Then after blending was finished, I used colored pencils to shade in my sketch and give it some needed color.