A HQ version is now on my facebook page ---> [link]

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And there he is - The latest instalment in the Disney Heroes Collection, Flynn Rider (aka Eugene Fitzherbert)!!!

It's been more then a year (!!!) since the previews Disney Hero, Prince Naveen, and it was a hard choice to pick up who would be next in line.

At first, I really didn't want to add Flynn to the collection. Anyone who knows me, know my feeling towards the final visuals in TANGLED. Especially the final look of the characters. I was never a big fan of the CGI Disney characters, they always lack something I can only find in 2D hand drawn characters, especially in the design. Most of CGI characters are so generic, big round eyes,and always lean towards the comic style. Plus, when came to the Disney Heroes collection, it felt like not much of challenge to take a 3D character, and turn it into a more realistic version, which is what I love the most about drawing the 2D characters in this collection.

The decision to finally take the step and add Flynn to the collection came after I've received "The Art Of Tangled" book as a birthday gift from one of my best of of friends (M, you're the best!), in which I saw again all the amazing character designs of Flynn done by Glen Keane and Jin Kim and I remembered why I loved this character a few years back before they final design in the movie. This is when I inspired to take the original 2D characters design, which is a bit more angular, an way more Glen Keane, and have that to be a part of the Disney Heroes Collection.

Not only that, I had also started to think of how I would use all of what CGI animation has to offer in order to bring that character from the 2D world to the 3D one, if I was the one to design the final movie version. This is when I another one of my best friends, a very special person and a visionary all on his own, suggested the idea of giving Flynn some body hair, and it hit me that this what Disney should have done, if they're already using CGI, why not do something extra, that can't be done in 2D that easy, using the GCI medium to it's advantage instead of trying to imitate the hand drawn style?!

After endless tries and different takes on the famous smoulder, figuring out the right outfit that would fit with the time in which TANGED takes place, the final addition to this drawing was the background and of course the lanterns. To me, the lanterns sequence was the best thing about Tangled. It was magic! All of a sudden, I didn't care about the facts that I didn't like the character design, the backgrounds, nothing was wrong, as everything was right - it was a pure Disney magic moment and there was no doubt in my mind that I had to have it in one of my Tangled fan arts drawings, and which better then this one? (yes, these lanterns took days to create!)


I hope you all love this one, as I truly put my heart into it, and wanted to give it something extra then the rest of the collection, and in one way or another, this will be the new direction for the Disney Heros Collection, and there are many more of them already in the making.

I am currently busy with many, many amazing projects at the moment, and if you want to see previews of all of them then visit my partner in crime page ---> [link] - I would LOVE to hear your thoughts and comments on any one of them.

Once I'll get some free time from work at the studio and get a little better with my health, it is back to the Heroes.





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David Kawena, 2011
Photoshop CS2