{"id":11918,"date":"2015-09-30T11:00:35","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T09:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/?p=11918"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:46:58","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T13:46:58","slug":"talking-point-jirka-vaatainen-and-the-human-face-of-disney-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/talking-point-jirka-vaatainen-and-the-human-face-of-disney-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"TALKING POINT: JIRKA V\u00c4\u00c4T\u00c4INEN AND THE HUMAN FACE OF DISNEY CHARACTERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever tried to imagine how Disney\u2019s characters would look like in real life? The graphic designer and illustrator Jirka V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen\u00a0did it, with a surprising result. Belle, Aurora, Cinderella, Tarzan and Aladdin, as well as many others, have gained human form through the photo-manipulation and digital painting. That\u2019s why I decided to interview him.<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\nHi Jirka, thanks for taking the time to chat with me today. Tell us a little about\u00a0yourself. What is your background? How did you get your start as an illustrator\u00a0and graphic designer?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m a 26 year-old guy. Born and raised in Finland. Ever since I was a kid, I have been doing arts related stuff and exercised my creative side on my freetime as much as possible. So it was a rather natural progression for me to turn this natural flair into a career and get a degree in Graphic Design.
\nI studied abroad in the UK, at Arts University Bournemouth. I have been working as a graphic designer, mostly in advertising (and in Helsinki) since I graduated in 2012.\u00a0 SInce the the beginning of 2015 I have been based in Melbourne Australia where I am planning to spend the rest of the year\u00a0freelancing.<\/p>\n

How would you describe your approach?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Having worked in advertising and mainly doing design work for clients, I try to approach a new project from a perspective that is appropriate for the brief you have gotten. So there is not one single idea or an\u00a0approach<\/span>\u00a0that I live by. I try to take in a project and find the relevant set of information, inspiration and way of thinking to\u00a0approach<\/span>\u00a0the project at hand. In the end, design is often about problem solving \u2013 and creating an impact is what you want to achieve in the end.<\/p>\n

I was really impressed by your project \u201cEnvisioning Disney Girls\/Guys in Real\u00a0Life\u201d.\u00a0 How was this project born?\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0idea\u00a0for\u00a0doing these characters basically came out of\u00a0nowhere;\u00a0one\u00a0day\u00a0(back in 2011) I just thought about exploring what\u00a0the\u00a0character of Ursula from\u00a0the\u00a0Little Mermaid could look like in real life. Having grown up with a lot of these characters,\u00a0the\u00a0sense of nostalgia made it such a fascinating and a\u00a0fun\u00a0personal project to explore and carry on with. Also, I have always been interested in\u00a0character\u00a0design, as well as\u00a0the\u00a0way people look and what makes them unique in their appearances. So I was inspired by\u00a0the\u00a0idea\u00a0of 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\u00a0the\u00a0unrealistic\u00a0quirksin their original character designs.<\/p>\n

What kind of research did you do to create the Real-Life Disney characters?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since I grew up with a lot of these characters, I usually have a pre-conceived vision of these characters in my head. But of course, a lot of the times I need to watch clips to remind me of the characters personality to be able to convey that in my work. And pictures of the character as well and pay attention to the details in the original character design. I also research and look for real-life people and pictures that somehow remind me of the character that I am doing.<\/p>\n

Did you have a favourite character to work on and why?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I tend to favour working on the characters that I grew up with. Especially The Little Mermaid was one of my favourite films as a kid \u2013 and still is, so all the characters from that film that I have done I had a lot of fun with.<\/p>\n

How do you set the mood when you work?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I simply try to get excited by the project at\u00a0hand and be inspired by the different aspects of it. Feeling challenged by what I am doing always gets me in the mood! And a good cup of coffee doesn’t hurt.<\/p>\n

Last question. What does the word creativity mean to you?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For me it is about having fun with what you’ve got at hand \u2013 it is the thoughts and ideas you have when approaching a problem\/blank canvas\/brief\/etc. You can be creative in so many ways and in different areas in life. I find being creative is a skill that we all have to some extent.
\n <\/p>\n

jirkavinse.com
\n<\/a>www.behance.net\/Jirka<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DisneyUrsula from the Little Mermaid<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Disney
\n<\/a>Alice\u00a0in Wonderland<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Disney
\n<\/a>Snow White<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Disney
\n<\/a>Pocahontas<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Disney
\n<\/a>Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty<\/em>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"Disney
\n<\/a>Prince Adam \/ Beast from Beauty and the Beast
\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Disney
\n<\/a>Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Disney<\/a><\/p>\n

Tarzan<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Disney
\n<\/a>Aladdin<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image courtesy:\u00a0Jirka V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen
\n<\/em>All images\u00a0\u00a9 Jirka V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen, all rights reserved<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever tried to imagine how Disney\u2019s characters would look like in real life? The graphic designer and illustrator Jirka V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen\u00a0did it, with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":11874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[908],"tags":[970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11918"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11921,"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11918\/revisions\/11921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theeatculture.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}