In our most recent installment of the Disney Fairies series, the Fairies of Pixie Hollow travel to the mainland (rural England) and set up a Fairy Camp.

The seasonal ritual comes with the logistical challenge of transporting large stores of Pixie Dust (which fuels fairy flight) as well as Tinker Bell’s mount, a mouse named Cheese. Although I enjoyed working on a lot of period, man-made objects, I love the magical stuff the most and these props definitely have the magic.

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“What could be more ‘metal’ than bats and skulls?”

The question was posed to me by my my former roommate Jimmy when he was planning to redecorate his kitchen back in 2005.

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This is an experiment. I’m writing this post in the hope that we can generate some lively discussion. It’s time for some controversy.

MY QUESTION :: There are a lot of beautifully-designed movies with bad stories out there. In your opinion, why?

I don’t think that the highly-trained, highly-skilled visual artists outnumber the highly-skilled, highly-trained writers. If so, what do we do about that?

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To a human, it is a revolutionary convenience, but to a fairy it is a hostile environment.

Here are some of the set designs that I painted for the antique car that is featured prominently in the girl-power finale of Tinker Bell and The Great Fairy Rescue which is now available on DVD & Blu Ray.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

IN THIS EPISODE ::

I speak with Jerzy Drozd (creator of The Front) and Thomas James (creator of Escape From Illustration Island) about a recent discussion that has been taking place here on ChrisOatley.com regarding personal projects and how to actually finish them.
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A few of my Disney colleagues attended a painting workshop that was taught by Jedi Master Dan McCaw.

One of them (I’ll call him Joe) was expressing how hard it is to find time to do personal work and grow artistically while managing the demands of life, career and family etc…

Someone suggested that Joe wake up an hour or two earlier each day to make room for painting, sketching and other types of personal artistic growth and expression.  Joe had tried in the past to do exactly that but had not found the motivation.

Allegedly, Mr. McCaw said to him: “It’s because your desire has not yet outweighed your frustration.”
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