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.

It was a very compelling assignment. I worked with expert draftsman/ model builder/ sailor Ron Roesch to create an amalgam of several turn of the century vehicles. (Art Direction by Fred Warter)

Throughout this assignment I learned a lot about cars and the general history of the automobile. Ron knows how things work and thus this car is so precisely designed it would almost run if anyone went to the trouble of actually building it.

While Ron and I worked together, he even explained to me how one concocts moonshine. Moonshine is, in fact, NOT featured prominently in the finale of Tinker Bell and The Great Fairy Rescue.

It took weeks to design. My brains melted as we worked out all of the moving parts. I reconciled the design from every angle: top, left, right, front & bottom views (plus the firewall & steering mechanism which are shown above).

(Remember my disoriented tweets about my walk through the empty halls of the studio and my involuntary burst into song? “You can fly, you can fly…” Yeah. …that was then.)

I also did the Vis Dev painting for the undercarriage of the car, which is a set that is featured near the beginning of the film (not shown here).

I will continue to post my work from the movie in the coming weeks.

Needless to say, I’m very proud of the work we did on this film. I think the movie is our strongest one yet. …and I happen to know that the best is still yet to come.

Exciting times at DTS, my friends…