Envisioning Disney Guys in "Real Life" by Jirka Väätäinen
Back in the day in 2011, Jirka Väätäinen just randomly got the idea to explore what Ursula from the Little Mermaid could look like in real life. Since then, he has enjoyed this type of work and continued to add to the series. And this year, he thought it was time to do the guys. Let us take a look at how he illustrated the Disney guys in real life. Enjoy!
Having grown up with a lot of these characters, the sense of nostalgia made it such a fascinating and a fun personal project to explore and carry on with. Also, I have always been interested in character design, as well as the way people look and what makes them unique in their appearances. So I was inspired by the idea of recreating these characters that we all know and love, in a way I would imagine them to look like if they were "more real," while still staying somewhat true to the unrealistic quirks in their original character designs.
- Jirka Väätäinen
The challenge is to turn these cartoon characters with not a lot of detailed features into human version and to make sure there is still something that people recognize and can relate to. So it required a lot of imagination and reading into their personalities to get them right. I haven't kept up with the number revisions. For me it's all about working on the artwork till I feel like I got it right.
- Jirka Väätäinen
About Jirka Väätäinen
Jirka Väätäinen is a 25 year old guy who was born and raised in Finland. He is a graphic design graduate from the Arts University Bournemouth, UK. He has been working as a graphic designer, mostly in advertising and in Helsinki since he graduated in 2012. He is currently based in Melbourn, Australia since the beginning of 2015 and he is planning to spend the rest of the year in freelancing. You can find more of his works on his Behance profile or website.
Out of all of the men in the Disney universe I feel like, for me personally, Aladdin would be the most difficult to imagine as real (probably because of the shape of his face or something), but this artist did an amazing job!! Prince Eric is another favorite of mine from this post!
I really admire how great the imagination of this artist. Another brilliant project from Jirka! <3
These looks amazing! Eric's is so gorgeous, lol! Great work, Jirka! :)