SATURDAY SIX Artist Spotlight: The Theme Park Artwork of Brandon Starr

This week the SATURDAY SIX Proudly Presents: The Theme Park Artwork of BRANDON STARR! 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 all previous Artist Spotlight features by CLICKING HERE.) The class of 2025 begins in earnest with Brandon Starr (@BrandonStarrArt), an artist whose ability to creatively mashup characters and situations is second to none.

Reminder that clicking on any photo will bring up a full size version.

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Thank you so much Derek for inviting me to participate in Artist Showcase! Honored to be featured, and even more so to be kicking off this year’s group of talented artists.

I have fond memories of driving through suburban Orange County in the back of my parents car, exiting Katella, passing a stream of grungy motels, parking and spying the Main Street train station visible in the distance peaking above rows of cars in the immense, somewhat dingy and unflattering Disneyland parking lot (in the days long before California Adventure). Upon entering the turnstiles of Disneyland park, we were transported instantly from the suburban sprawl outside and into a magical perfectly curated land of enchantment. It felt like magic.

Growing up in Orange County, CA (back when there was still plenty of farmland and cattle ranches), my childhood years were sprinkled with nearly annual trips to either Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm. Often we were asked to pick one or the other to visit when my cousins were in town. And so to a certain extent, I don’t see those parks just as places but as core memories from childhood.

Trips to these theme parks left an indelible mark on my growing mind, inspiring my artistic interests, including countless childhood drawings (At one point I even recruited my grade school classmates to help me build papercraft versions of the Jungle Cruise and Tiki Room). This all fed into my eventual (perhaps inevitable) career as an illustrator, and occasional gallery artist.

I’d like to thank a few people for the part they played in what you’re about to see as you scroll down. Firstly my wife, who acted as a silent partner on almost all of these pieces, providing notes and feedback, always pushing me to be better. She also helped me initially get my foot in the door doing freelance work for Disney by introducing me to my dear friend Joey Caporaso who was at the time a producer for Walt Disney Imagineering, who then introduced me to another fine friend, writer Kevin Lively, who also helped me get a ton of work while he was working for WDI. I also need to mention friends Sam Carter and Ryan Batcheller, fellow artists who ran the Popzilla Gallery in Anaheim for many years, which is where a lot of the fan art below was once displayed. And of course the fine team behind the gallery shows at Knott’s Berry Farm, including Pasta Berkey, and Eric Nix (who has since moved on to work for Universal.)

Now, on with the show…

# 6 – Freelancing For the Mouse

I was very much blessed to fulfill a childhood dream early on in my Illustration career having the opportunity to work on several freelance projects for the Blue Sky division of Walt Disney Imagineering. Most of those jobs are permanently locked behind NDA’s, but one that did come to fruition was the Adventure Trading Company, an interactive experience that could be enjoyed in Adventureland CA and FL, for which I was the primary concept artist. This was the brainchild of the aforementioned writer Kevin Lively, and producer Joey Caporaso.

Below are some of the concept pieces produced for that project. All of these were sketched first by hand either using a pencil or simple ballpoint pen, then scanned and colored in photoshop. Styling was influenced by the work of the great Imagineers Harper Goff and Marc Davis.

# 5 – The Disney Mashups

Perhaps one of the things I’ve become best known for are these Disney mashup fan art gallery pieces. Here are some of my favorites. Some of these were sketched by hand and colored digitally, but lately I’ve been working almost entirely digitally in Clip Studio Paint from start to finish.

# 4 – The Afternoon Adventureland Series

Technically these are also mashups, but were so popular they became a series of their own. I absolutely loved the Disney Afternoon television series as a kid, especially Duck Tales and Tales Spin. I also was, and still am a fan of Adventureland at Disneyland. Anyway, this seemed like an appropriate series of mashups. I have some ideas for additional pieces, but for now this series is on extended pause.

Notably, it was with this series that my custom frames started getting more elaborate. Below you can see a sped up video of my framing process.

# 3 – Knott’s Berry Farm

Back in 2018 I had the honor of being part of Knott’s Berry Farm’s very first art show, and have consistently participated in at least two shows a year with them since then (one year they had a Christmas show too). It has been a great pleasure getting to create art that celebrates America’s first theme park.

Below is a sample of some of the pieces I’ve done for their shows over the years.

One of my personal favorite details at Knott’s is the benches that feature seated statues for photo moments, in fact, this particular bench below inspired a particular piece…

…titled Ghost Town Bench. Originally I had only painted the bench with the two ladies, but my wife said it needed a little something extra, and suggested adding Walter and Cordelia Knott… and, as usual, she was right. It went from being one of my least favorite Knott’s pieces I’ve done to one of my favorites.

Speaking of Walter and Cordelia, I enjoyed working on this piece as I wanted to express the sheer amount of joy they have brought to the world that all started with their berry farm.

# 2 – The Changing Portraits

I got this idea years ago when my wife came home from a trip to Yosemite National Park with two souvenir lenticular postcards that would display different scenes from the park depending on what angle they were viewed at. I actually kept the postcards on the wall of my office for years, knowing that at some point I would have a project where I could use the lenticular printing technology.

Mr. Toad was the first of these, inspired by the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland as well as Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. The layout is reminiscent of an unused portrait that Imagineer Marc Davis created for the Haunted Mansion known as the Burning Miser. I’d be hard pressed to ever pick a “favorite” of the fan art pieces I have done over the years, but this is up at the tippy top.

(DEREK NOTE: Make sure you stop for a moment to watch each of these portraits change.)

I ended up doing several more Disney inspired pieces. Imagery from the Haunted Mansion lends itself quite favorably to this style of art, including this piece combining the Hat Box Ghost and Jiminy Cricket.

The following were displayed at the Into the Fog Gallery at Knott’s Scary Farm.

# 1 – What’s Next?

Not directly theme park related, but certainly inspired by Fantasyland as well as the early Disney animated classics. This is a project that I’ve been working on for quite some time with my wife that I’d like to share with you all. Early on, we thought we would be making an animated short, but most certainly at this point it will be an illustrated book. We are working on creating an adaptation of the story The Princess and the Pea. I think anyone who has visited a Disney castle park can see the influence at play here.

If anyone is interested in keeping up with this project please look me up on social media or on my website www.brandonstarr.com, where I’m also happy to answer any questions you have about any of my work. And thank you all for reading this whole article!

See more of Brandon Starr on Twitter (@BrandonStarrArt), Instagram (/brandonstarrart), his website BrandonStarr.com, and his online store.

So there you have it: SATURDAY SIX Artist Spotlight – The Theme Park Artwork of Brandon Starr! 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 bluesky (@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 2024: Jaime S. | Jess Feldman | Bryan Bindman

Artist Spotlight Class of 2025: Brandon Starr

SATURDAY SIX Artist Spotlight: The Theme Park Artwork of Brian Gweon

SATURDAY SIX Artist Spotlight: The Theme Park Artwork of Phillip Weatherford (AKA The Horizoneer)

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Artists Inspired by Universal’s VELOCICOASTER

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Artists Inspired by Universal’s HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS

SATURDAY SIX Artists Inspired by HHN Series: Declan O’mara