Phone Love

When it comes to technology,  I am the Queen Bee of procrastination. I'm running on operating systems that were released before the dawn of time because I don't want to go through the "hassle" of updating. When did instagram add videos to their platform? A year ago? Well, I wouldn't know because my phone operating system was so out of date that EVEN THEN I couldn't use the new features on the app. And I don't even remember the last time I could use twitter from my phone. Sheeesh.

So when I got the new Iphone 5s in December, I thought "This is perfect. I will get my technology organized and up to date for the New Year! Resolution #1 is in the bag!" I plugged my new phone in and started to restore all of the apps I already own... and received an error message telling me that my version of Itunes was out of date and that I needed to update it before I could restore my phone further. Oh...okay. Well, I guess I will just do this later then. 

That was over two months ago. I have had a brand new phone in my possession for over two months and have stubbornly refused to set it up because I didn't want to update Itunes. I am happy to report, however, that I was able to get my act together this weekend and get my brand-spanking (2 month-old) new phone up and running. And yes, by order of my husband, automatic updates are turned on. Permanently.

In similar Brittney procrastinating fashion, I have had oodles of shiny new Iphone cases sitting boxes in my office for months now. I had originally planned on releasing them on Etsy before the new year, but then other projects got the better of me, and the poor little phone cases fell by the wayside. In honor of my current wave of technology inspiration, though, I'm releasing eleven new iphone cases to my etsy shop today! Most of the new designs are for the Iphone 5s (not 5c, sorry!), but there are a few still available for the 4/4s.
They feature various old and new designs, and come in a pretty packaging for gift-giving. You can have a peak at them all right here.

 Whew - I don't know about you, but I love accomplishing things on a Monday. It sort of sets the tone for the week, don't you think? Thank you all for stopping by, and have a wonderfully productive week! I will have more posts (including a few more on Frozen) up soon, so stay tuned!

Frozen - Elsa

I'm an Ariel girl. That really isn't news to anyone who has frequented this blog, but if you are a new visitor - there you go! The Little Mermaid landed on my lap when I was very small and deeply and profoundly changed me. Everything about her was everything that I wanted to grow up to be, and it thoroughly annoyed me for most of my life that I did not have luscious red locks with anti-gravity bangs. Or fins.

Final Elsa design

And then Elsa. When I initially started working on Frozen, Elsa was a very different character. She was moody, more jealous, and the only part of her that I could really relate to was the fact that she was an older sister. The more the story team finessed her and her motivations, though, the more I realized that I am more like Elsa than I ever was like Ariel. When you have fancied yourself as a bubbly mermaid for most of your life, the realization that you are actually more of a snow queen kind of hits you like a ton of ice-bricks. 

The images  above illustrate the transformation in Elsa's silhouette and palette.

Thus the experience of working with her throughout the making of this film was an extremely personal one. Elsa walks a fine line between being a distant and a sympathetic character, and I wanted to contribute in any way that I possibly could to make sure that audiences would love her and understand her the way that I already did. In a weird way working with her was an exercise in self-preservation.

One of the first assignments I received on Elsa was a redesign of her hair. She had initially been designed with a sharper silhouette, but as her character changed it became apparent that her style needed to be refreshed. We wanted something for her that was more approachable, more romantic, but that still retained some Norwegian ethnicity. Oh, and magical - it would be great if it was magical, too.

First pass at Elsa's braid.

Final braid design.

After many passes and many meetings spent discussing what hairstyles say about personalities, the above braid emerged as the winner. There is a flame-like quality to it that I loved when put into juxtaposition with her ice-powers. It is fragile but sharp (like she is), and also no-nonsense. Elsa doesn't have time to fuss with her hair - she just freezes it in place and gets on with the show.

And then there is that dress. What I wouldn't give for someone to ice-magic me that dress. Just like Elsa herself, her dress went through many, many iterations until it finally felt right for our girl. When this dress materializes, Elsa is at her most confident. She is open and free after years of controlling and containing all of her emotions. Since costumes should be designed to support the character, this dress needed to be a glorious breathe of relief.

Once we had snow queen Elsa figured out, we had to work backwards to establish who she is when we first meet her. Before her coronation, Elsa holds everything in. She is controlled and contained. Her initial braided bun reflects that, as well as her coronation dress and cape. She is quite literally the pillar of strength that the people of her kingdom need her to be, and yet she is completely closed off from them.

All images are property of Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Two years passed from the first time I worked on Elsa until the actual release of the film,  and she went through a tremendous amount of changes during that time. I am so happy about where she landed and so honored to have been given the chance to work with her.  Ariel still holds a special place in my heart, but if I am honest with myself... I am an Elsa girl.

More Frozen and other posts to come. Have a wonderful week!

Frozen - Rosemaling

Research is a huge part of what we do. Once the team had decided that Frozen would take place in a kingdom that was based on Norway, a group was sent to Norway to gather as much first-hand reference as possible. While there were many things learned on this trip, the one thing that the team came back with that directly affected my work on the show was the art of rosemaling.

Rosemaling is a type of decorative folk-painting that can be seen just about everywhere in Norway - it is used on everything from architecture to clothing. My fantastic art director, Mike Giaimo, (if you don't know who he is, do yourself a favor and look him up!) decided that we needed to develop our own library of rosemaling for Frozen - and that is where I came in!

My first month or so on Frozen was dedicated solely to creating rosemaling for the world of Arendelle. I worked on everything from wallpaper to tapestries (like the ones above) to painted architectural designs to costumes (there will definitely be more on those later). The great thing that we discovered about our rosemaling was that nothing went to waste. We needed so much of it to propagate throughout the film that even if a design didn't get picked in the first round, we ended up using it later.

For costuming, we wanted our rosemaling to reinforce each individual character's personality traits. Anna is bright and bubbly, so her rosemaling is always effervescent and floral. Elsa is poised and refined, so she has long, elegant designs with a hint of crystal-like geometry.  Since Kristoff is a bit of an outsider, his patterns are much more geometric and banded, reflecting design elements seen in the clothing of the Saami people of Norway.

The tapestries that hang throughout the castle in Arendelle were a fun challenge. They had to be approached with the design language we established with Arendelle's rosemaling, but with an added element of storytelling. The tapestries below were initially requested as a set of two: one representing Spring and the other representing Winter. Eventually it was decided that we should have all four seasons, so Summer and Fall were added to the mix. 

All images are property of Walt Disney Animation Studios.

I don't think I had any idea when I started on Frozen how prevalent rosemaling would be. Honestly, I was thrilled to just be able to work on the movie, so I happily doodled away for days and days on these designs. Now I look back and am so thrilled to have been given this task. As a visual development artist, it is really rare that your actual work makes it to the final frame of the film. Our jobs are to inspire and inform the artists who make the actual assets, but in this case I get to see my work on the walls and the hems of their skirts. It is magic. 

More to come on Frozen soon, as well as other updates! Thank you so much for your response to the last post, as well as your continued support.  Have a wonderful weekend!

FROZEN: Elsa and Her Ice Palace

I have been holding off on writing a post about working on this film for some time now - mainly because I haven't been able to find the words to do it justice. I will be grateful for this experience for the rest of my life. The schedule was really tough, but in some ways that made those of us who were working on the film love it (and each other ) even more. It is crazy to think that six months ago, I could (and did) belt "Let it Go" in my car and nobody else knew what the heck I was talking about. Now everybody and their brother is belting it in their car, and I am watching their videos on Youtube. Amazing.

I was so lucky to be able to touch many different aspects of the film. This one, though - she is very near and dear to my heart. The more Elsa's character evolved, the more I felt like I was looking in a mirror. While I can (and probably will) go into more detail about the eerie similarities between the lives of the sisters of Arendelle and the Lee sisters, the thing that really hit home for me immediately was this: Elsa is an artist. She expresses herself through creation. 

Well, hey! I know that girl. 

This characteristic presented an interesting problem. Not only did we need to design Elsa and the world around her, but we needed to design what she would design. Just like her character, this visual language evolved over time, eventually settling on a lyrical rosemaling-inspired treatment for her magic and a sharp-yet-delicate snowflake-inspired treatment for her final creations. I had the great pleasure of working on the interior of the Ice Palace, where a few of these principles went into play. 

These are a few of the pieces I did while working on the palace - This first one was done before we figured out the rules of Elsa's design language. It is ethereal for sure, but not quite right for her. 

The rest of these pieces actually reflect the final design. The snowflake was the key to this world: once we started to base the design around her snowflake (specifically the one on the floor) , the palace was able to grow like snow/ice crystals around her. 

 All images are property of Walt Disney Animation Studios.

I will do a few more Frozen posts over the next couple of weeks to cover different aspects of the film. In the meantime, I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Cheers to a New Year!

It is that time of year again. The time for popping corks, drinking champagne, making resolutions and such. High on my list of resolutions for 2014 is to no longer ignore this little blog. 2013 was so full of work, play, and generally wonderful things that it seemed that there was no time to stop and chronicle any of it. But as the most touching gift I received for Christmas this year was a digital transfer of a home video taken 20 years ago, I realize that recording moments and projects is really very valuable. It is a habit that I want to get back into in 2014, and I'm going to start taking steps to do that today!

One of my favorite personal projects of this year has been working with David on these little desk calendars! The Calendar Girls started as a conversation with friends about what would make an interesting desk calendar for an end of the year project, and evolved into a full-blown production on all fronts! I love to problem solve, and from start to finish these girls have certainly been an exercise in exactly that!

The original concept was to make 100 original and completely unique Calendar girls for 2014 - all hand cut, painted, and packaged. The girls would function like paper-dolls - the stand is a unique girl and the pages for every month are a different dress.  They would be reserved for attendees of CTN-X, Kickstarter backers, coworkers, friends, and family for 2014, and depending on how well they were received we would make a new run next year. The response was overwhelming, and as it turns out we will have a few left over at the end of the year... and we would love to share them with you!

To celebrate the New Year,  I will add about 20 Calendar girls to my Etsy shop at noon PST on January 1st. Each one will be unique and is numbered between 1 and 100. After that, we won't be making any more until 2015, so if you are interested I would definitely recommend snatching one up!

I hope you all have spent a warm and wonderful holiday season celebrating with friends and family, and I wish everyone a fantastic New Year. Let's make 2014 the best year yet :)

Comic Con 2013

It is that time of year again!

Comic Con 2013 is underway, and we are once again hanging out at Small Press table O15. We have a new batch of Confetti, as well as originals, prints, buttons, and now iPhone cases! If you are braving the crowds in San Diego this week, please stop by and say hello!

And if you want to stay up to date on all of the Comic Con shenanigans, follow me on instagram and twitter (@britsketch). 

Have a great week!

The Best Day.

 2012 was a big year. While I don't usually like to delve too much into personal details on this little blog, I reserve the right to do so when I believe it is necessary! David and I got hitched back in August, and we were very fortunate to have our wedding featured this week on Green Wedding Shoes! Since the incredible photos by Sloan Photographers and our absolutely stunning video by Geoff Boothby of Sharkpig are out there for the world to see, I thought this might be an opportune time to share some of the paper goods from our shin-dig. 

And oh. Were there ever paper goods.

These are just a few of said paper goods.

The overall design of our invitation suite was eclectic - just like us! We drew inspiration from some mid-century design, the gold and coral/pink palette that we had already chosen for our wedding, my love for biting off more than I (or we) can chew, and the bond that holds us together - movies. We met in film school. We work together on films. And when we are not working, you can usually find us arguing the finer plot points of a movie we have just seen over cocktails. It is just what we like to do!

So our save-the-dates were Jaws themed. Why? Well, we were brainstorming one night and David drew a fabulous concept sketch (his drawings have much more character than mine do). It was so funny that I cried from laughing so hard.  The wedding was taking place on a lake, so water seemed appropriate. We already had a movie theme going, so Jaws could work right into that. And I loved the cheesy play on "saving" the date. We engineered the card so that when you pull the tab at the base, a pretty-little oxygen tank releases from or boat. If you have seen Jaws, you know why this happens. If not, well, maybe you should re-visit this post when you have.

I designed the cards (based on David's sketches) and he figured out the necessary mechanics to make them work the way we wanted them to! Teamwork!

Then came the actual invitations. This is where the "I love to bite off more than I can chew" aspect of this project comes in. Our save-the-dates were so unique that we had no idea how to step-it-up for the invitations. Except by making them 3 layered, full-on pop up movie-marquis cards. So that is what we did!

We liked the idea of having our names in lights, so we designed a movie-marquis around a pop-up mechanic. Each card was cut and glued by hand, then secured with a little painting that I had done of the two of us (top image) and wrapped in a gold-glitter belly band. To make them extra fancy (and to spread as much glitter across the country as we possibly could), we lined the envelopes with gold glitter paper as well. I wanted our guests to feel as though they were opening an envelope from the academy awards. Well, I don't know if Academy Award envelopes have gold glitter in them, but maybe they should.

This is just a taste of all of the crazy projects we worked on for our wedding day, but you can certainly see more over at Green Wedding Shoes. It was a wonderful day, David is a wonderful boy, and all of the time we spent on our little projects (I think) was completely worth it.

As a random side note - I wanted to give everyone a little heads-up that I recently updated the shop! A bunch of new prints with (hopefully) more to come soon. Thank you, as always, for continuing to check back.  Have a wonderful week!

Ladies of Animation!

 I am so fortunate to be part of an amazing group show this weekend at GRworks Gallery in LA. The show is titled "Ladies of Animation" and will feature the work of a ton of wonderfully talented women. You can read more about the show right here.

This is one of my four pieces for the show! I thought it might be appropriate to give a sneak peak at the Queen of Hearts, with Valentine's Day being right around the corner and all! The whole set  was really fun to work on, and I can't wait to share the rest of them at the show opening on Saturday! If you are in the area, definitely stop by and say hello! And don't worry, all of the other pieces will be online soon for those who cannot make the trip.

Each lady in the show also contributed a Valentine's Day card design that is now available online! Here is my contribution:

There are some really amazing cards to choose from - and if you can't choose, you can snag the whole set!

It should definitely be an amazing time on Saturday - I hope to see you all there!

Legendary Beauties!

Life has been crazy as of late. One thing I am happy to share is that Lorelay and I have been hard at work on a show that opens TONIGHT at Gallery Nucleus! Here is some more info on the show:

LEGENDARY BEAUTIES

Nucleus is thrilled to present an exciting duo exhibition featuring two of our favorite artists. Lorelay Bové andBrittney Lee, both talented designers at Walt Disney Animation, have come together to create a beautiful collection of works that pay homage to some of the most memorable women in history. 


OPENING RECEPTION HIGHLIGHTS: 

• Artists in attendance
• Free Admission
• Hourly Raffle Prizes 
• Complementary refreshments

The show will open tonight and runs through December 2nd. 

Here we are hard at work on a collaboration piece!  

There will also be an Art of Wreck-It Ralph panel and book signing happening right before our show opens that will feature an awesome group of artists including Mike Gabriel, Ian Gooding, Bill Schwab, Ryan Lang, and Vicky Ying. It should be an amazing night! You can find more info on the panel and book signing right here. 

If you find yourself in the Los Angeles area tonight, we would love to see you there! 

Comic Con!

It is that time of year again! Today marks the beginning of San Diego Comic Con, and I am very happy to say that I will be there in the same place as last year (Small Press Table O-15) with lots of prints, Confetti books, a few originals, and more on hand. The image above is one of the new prints I will have with me, and it is even embellished with gold ink!

I will also be helping with portfolio reviews for Walt Disney Animation Studios on Friday from 12-2:30pm, so have those portfolios ready! Also,  I will be doing a special signing with Gallery Nucleus (where we may even have a new, Nucleus exclusive print) at their booth on Saturday from 12-1pm.

If you want to have the most up-to-date info from me on what is happening at the convention, follow me (@britsketch) on Twitter and Instagram!

It is going to be a crazy, fun, exciting week! If you happen to be in San Diego, I hope to see you there!