SATURDAY SIX Artist Spotlight: The Theme Park Artwork of JAIME S. – Tiny Theme Park Artist

This week the SATURDAY SIX Proudly Presents: The Theme Park Artwork of JAIME S.! To coincide with Disney’s Festival of the Arts, each February the SATURDAY SIX spotlights artists in the theme park community. Each of these Artist Spotlight features gives us a chance to appreciate an artist whose work incorporates characters, attractions, or any other part of the Disney or Universal theme parks. We began this annual tradition in 2021 and have continued each year (you can find previous Artist Spotlight features by CLICKING HERE.) The class of 2024 is kicking off with Jaime S. (@jdimaria124) and her amazing ability to take things larger than life and make them, well, small (but in a good way.)

JAIME: Thank you so much Derek, for letting me be a part of the 2024 Artist Spotlight series. It feels so special to be included in this amazing community as there are so many talented artists in it. I love seeing everyone’s voice expressed through their artwork of the parks.

I personally have been a fan of the Disney parks since I was a small child. In fact, I wanted to be an Imagineer for the longest time. Sadly that’s not where my journey led, but the good news is that I do love what I do (drafting – which is drawing technical drawings and plans.) As much as I enjoy working on the computer for work, I didn’t want to lose the skill of drawing by hand; plus, I need a break from staring at screens all day, so naturally I started to draw elements from the Disney parks.

I don’t know when it exactly started, but from a young age I just loved drawing things small.  I take it as a personal challenge to see how small I can draw something and how much detail I can fit into that drawing (I’m thankful for my good eyes!) A couple years ago when everything shut down for Covid-19, it gave me plenty of extra time to draw. While I had always drawn in black & white, I began to think about starting to color my artwork and maybe even create coloring books. The coloring books needed to match the tone of my drawings, so of course the books themselves must be tiny too! I thought what a great way to pack a little coloring on a Disney trip.

One of the reasons I enjoy creating these coloring books is that my art isn’t the last stop. Instead, the art and creativity can continue on to whoever colors each drawing. I can’t get enough of seeing how people color the scenes in the coloring books, and what types of media they use. Its all so special.

# 6 – The First Coloring Book – its a small world, Disneyland Paris

One of the things I love about theme parks is their use of color when it comes to design. Recently we’ve seen some amazing photos of the new Zootopia land in Shanghai, and I love walking through the colorful Seuss Landing in Islands of Adventure. When I think about the use of color at the parks, one of the first rides I think of is it’s a small world. I absolutely adore the version of small world at Disneyland Paris for its very distinct style that differentiates from the other versions across the world. On my forever growing drawing bucket list, I will get to the other versions of small world someday.

I can’t talk about coloring my artwork without coloring it myself. I like to use gel pens for the precision and brightness.

# 5 – Art Imitating Life followed by Life Imitating Art

Living in Florida, I rarely visit the Disney parks outside of the state. Like many, I only get a chance to experience the parks in California, Paris, and Asia by reading blogs and watching videos on YouTube. I do get inspired by these parks and get an urge to draw their attractions! For my 30th birthday, I took a trip to Disneyland out in Anaheim, so I wanted to make a coloring book for that trip.

I love drawing something and then getting to see the inspiration of my artwork in person.

It was also great drawing the Disney Wish cruise ship. I was completely blown away by the beautiful details found all over the ship, and of course I loved being on Castaway Cay!

Living local to Walt Disney World in Florida has its perks too. It allows me to be able to take pics of my art in the parks on a regular basis.

# 4 – I Love the Classics!

Carousel of Progress is one of my favorite attractions in any Disney park, and it doesn’t get enough love in the community.

Every scene is so special to me, and it inspires me to create all different types of artwork based on the attraction.

When talking about classic Disney attractions that no one else can make, you have to bring up The Great Movie Ride.

I’ve recently started drawing another classic ride, the Haunted Mansion!

This will be one of my biggest projects yet as I’m including everything from the Walt Disney World version of the attraction, including both the outdoor and indoor queues. Here’s a look at part of that book…

# 3 – Tiny Maps

Turns out, my tiny coloring book artwork wasn’t tiny enough for me. That’s right, I wanted to go even smaller. I was able to combine tiny drawings with another passion of mine, drawing maps. This love affair with drawing maps goes back to my childhood (I wish I could find my old notebook with all the old drawings!) So instead of drawing a miniaturized version of one single part of an attraction, I would draw an entire land in micro size!

I also love going through every scene of an attraction and seeing how much detail I can add.

# 2 – For a Good Cause

I love the work that Alica Stella does which brings the entire theme park community together, but especially her annual Stop Hate fundraising event. In 2023, I created a 44 page tiny coloring book and map featuring Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. All proceeds from the sale of this coloring book went to Alicia’s fundraiser. The event went on to raise more than $25,000 and I’m honored to have been a part of it.

For the artwork, I chose to use the Disneyland version of Runaway Railway, including their façade.

One of the reasons I chose to draw the Disneyland version of the attraction over the Walt Disney World version was because of all the wonderful details in their queue that we don’t have in Florida.

 

The faux movie posters in the Runaway Railway are a pure blast! One of my favorite details in any Disney attraction queue.

I personally find Runaway Railway to be a super charming ride, and loaded with cute details that I can squeeze into my drawings.

# 1 – Not Just Disney

I learned of the Children’s Fairyland amusement park during the early parts of the Covid quarantine back in 2020. I went down a rabbit hole when researching the park and the more I looked, the more I discovered what a very special park it is and how much it means to the city of Oakland. Believe it or not, Children’s Fairyland was built in 1950, a half decade before Walt Disney built Disneyland. I really enjoyed drawing this little park and hope to visit it someday.

I’m very excited for my upcoming trip to Dollywood later this year. Of course, I need to make a coloring book for the park and fingers crossed I can give one to Dolly herself. Wish me luck!

So there you have it: The Theme Park Artwork of JAIME S. – Tiny Disney Artist! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on Twitter (@derekburgan).

If you enjoyed this article, you will surely like the following: 

Artist Spotlight Class of 2021: SonderQuest | Sam Carter | Brian Cooper | Sterling Denham

Artist Spotlight Class of 2022: Rob Yeo | Ava Buric | Jess Siswick | Hayden Evans

Artist Spotlight Class of 2023: Marie Catano | Savannah Hamilton | Bunny Wars

Artist Spotlight Class of 2023: Jaime |

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Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHyde and you Potterheads will  enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.