By: on Sunday, September 25th, 2011

In this new blog series, we are introducing you to the many wonderful members of our WDW Radio family who make this such an amazing community!  In our first issue, we met Stefan Lawrence, creator of the WDW Radio cruise logos.  Today, please meet Simon Phipps, long-time WDW Radio friend and creator of the 365 Mickeys project.  Please read below and learn of Simon’s work.  I think you will agree with me: he is amazingly talented!

1.      Have you always been a Disney fan?  Do you travel to Disney often?

My earliest memories of Disney were watching  ’Disney Time’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Time) on BBC television in the 1970s in the United Kingdom – a compilation of clips from the animated movies that were presented by various celebrities at Christmas time or on public holidays.  That, and having a Mickey Mouse Annual in the early 70s with a two-page black-and-white feature on Walt Disney World that made it sound amazing but which I never expected I’d ever visit.  Star Wars hit when I was 11 so I became a huge fan and although I had respect for Disney, I was so wrapped up in the Force, and later, home computers, that pretty much everything else went by the wayside.

Then, in 1991, when my wife, Jayne and I were planning our first big vacation together we discovered, to our surprise, that a 14-day trip to Walt Disney World in America was substantially cheaper than our originally planned 7-day trip with her parents to Austria, it was a real no-brainer what to do that summer.  So in July 1991 we took our first steps into the Magic Kingdom, and Jayne (who, also, was at that time, not what you’d call a ‘Disney fan’ per se) fell in love with WDW and has spent the past 20 years working out various strategies for getting us to spend as much time there as possible and filling our house with cartoon mice and Birnbaum Guides.  (And the occasional, but very high quality WDW Trivia Book too… ;) )

So would I consider myself a Disney Fan?  I guess after 20 years of Jayne’s fandom, the number of Imagineering books I own (it parallels a lot of what we do making video games) and the fact that the tattoo I designed for my left shoulder contains a Hidden Mickey (http://www.simonphipps.com/artwork/art/Ambigram-Tattoo.jpg) I suppose I have to stand up and finally admit that yes, ‘My name is Simon Phipps and, yes indeed…I am a Disney Fan’.

My biggest fear is that we visit Disney too often and what was once magical becomes routine so I must admit, I’ve tried to put the brakes on over the years so that there’s plenty of new things for us to discover and every trip we make is special.  That, and the fact that living in the UK makes a Disney trip very expensive – although we’ve discovered that it’s still better value per day for us to fly all the way across the Atlantic to Orlando than take the train to our nearest Disney Park in Paris.

That all said though, over the past twenty years, we’ve had the pleasure of visiting WDW 7 times, Disneyland Paris 5 times, Anaheim Disneyland once (I’ve visited the West Coast many times with work – I managed to get Jayne there in 2010 by steering our vacation via Anaheim), and, through the good fortune of some spare time on a business trip, I’ve had the extreme pleasure and privilege of visiting Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea (which has some tremendous theming and is unlike any other Disney Park I’ve ever been to – it is an absolute must-see if you ever get the chance to go.)

2.      Can you provide a brief overview of your project?  How and why did this start?

Simply, it is an attempt to draw 365 Mickeys in 365 days – each one, a 3.5″ x 5.5″ postcard in marker pen – many different styles and subjects.  I started drawing on 7 November 2010 and as I’m writing to you now, I am sitting beside a stack of 297 drawings of our favourite mouse.  I have 68 more to draw, and one very special Mickey to paint for a very good cause.

How did it start, well, back in 2009, after many years of being an ‘artist-in-denial’ with many half-drawn sketches and doodles I decided to spend more time drawing and specifically to: fill any sketchbook I started on with finished pictures and draw as regularly as possible.  I did a lot of drawings of pin-ups and was pleasantly surprised at the results – I could see a rapid improvement in my work and I ended up with books of drawings that were more than just the odd head or leg scribbled onto the centre of a piece of paper and discarded.

Then, in April 2010, we visited the West Coast and my imagination was tweaked by the variety of alternative images of Mickey that were on show at the D-Street store in Anaheim’s Downtown Disney District, and when leaving San Francisco I chanced upon the permanent exhibit at San Francisco Airport called ‘Gateway’ by Ik-joong Kang (http://www.ikjoongkang.com/c_img/im_03h_2000Gateway.htm) – an installation made of some 5,265 individual pieces of artwork all made by the artist while commuting as a student.

Cut to November 2010 and one Sunday afternoon I started drawing pictures of Mickey as various Hallowe’en monsters and Jayne liked them and said ‘you should do something with those’.  So, in a moment of semi-madness, I said ‘if you can give me a theme, I’ll draw you a Mickey every day for a year’.

And so it began…a love letter to my wife…involving a lot of cartoon mice…

3.      How are you displaying your Mickeys right now?

They’re gradually making their way to the artwork section of my personal website (http://www.simonphipps.com/artwork/365mickeys/365mickeys.htm) – in January 2011, I was sitting on top of a huge stack of Mickeys and Jayne suggested that I post them online and show them off to the world.  Of course, that motivated me to rebuild my entire site – which was in serious need of an overhaul anyway – so, 2011 has been quite busy in retrospect.

The way I’m working is that I generally draw a Mickey per day in pencil and ink it in black-and-white, then, go back and colour them in in batches, scan them and upload them to the site at approximately monthly intervals.  It allows me to be flexible with my spare time and I’d probably explode if I’d committed to uploading a full-colour illustration every day for 365 days…

I’d love to see the entire Mickey project displayed somehow when it’s finished – but by our calculation, it would take up a wall some 11′ x 5′ and I don’t think we’ve quite got the space.  I may try creating a single large poster-sized image using the computer or select a handful of our favourites to hang in our hallway.

In retrospect, I’m glad that I started in November and not on 1 January – that probably would have piled on more pressure than necessary – in this way I’ve got Hallowe’en to look forward to and I know that I get Christmas off!

4.      What do you plan to do when the project is over?  (Do you think you will miss it?)  Do you have a 365th Mickey in mind?

I’m itching to draw a heap more pin-ups – I haven’t really been able to do that since Mickey strolled onto my drawing page in November, but there’s no way I’m committing to drawing 365 of those in a year!

But I imagine that I’ll still take a shot at painting the odd Mickey in acrylics – walking around the ‘Art of Disney’ Store at WDW on vacation last week and getting inspired by the incredible artworks there I did comment to Jayne that when I was finished I’d like to take a shot at getting the paints out and drawing Mickey on a larger scale.

…and then your e-mail arrived and I’ve got the perfect excuse to have a go..  (Editor’s note: more on that, my friends, later this week!!)

5.      What is your favorite Mickey you have created? (so far)

If we’re talking ones that I’ve published to the site – I’m satisfied with Mad Hatter Mickey (http://www.simonphipps.com/artwork/365mickeys/11-05/11-05-10-Mad-Hatter-Mickey.jpg) since he’s probably the only Mickey out of 200 that I reckon is just about ‘on model’ – although I’m quite pleased with March’s Punk Mickey (http://www.simonphipps.com/artwork/365mickeys/11-03/11-03-10-Punk-Mickey.jpg) and Beatle Mickey (11-03-12-Beatle-Mickey.jpg)as I think I managed to pull off the style for these two.

6.      What have you learned in the process of painting these Mickeys?

Firstly, that Mickey is an incredibly subtle character to draw – after the first month or so I began studying him more and more carefully to try and get my drawings to be more ‘on model’ and with nearly 300 drawings under my belt, I’m still learning how to draw him and I’m still not entirely convinced that I’m doing it right.

And that it’s really, really, REALLY, difficult to come up with 365 different themes.  We began by illustrating the day’s events, which is okay, but after one birthday, one karate lesson, one bout of ‘flu or problem with the heating you start to see recurring themes coming into your life so you have to really work at finding a subject for a new Mickey.  (In fact until we started diversifying in May to doing themed Mickeys, Jayne was beginning to dread the phrase ‘what’s today’s Mickey, then?’)

But, our recent trip to WDW has given us some really neat Mickeys for August, I’m considering doing a set of classic movie Mickeys for September (including some Star Wars Mickeys) and Hallowe’en and Monster Mickeys should hopefully carry us through the final month.

And, there’s a special Mickey or two I have planned for 1st/2nd October as I understand that someone might be doing a marathon broadcast over that weekend…  ;)

7.      Anything else you would like to add?

I already have an awesomely cool job and in the course of that job, I’ve met some fantastic people and done some amazing stuff, but the great thing about the Mickeys project is that by doing it, I seem to have been able to connect with a whole bunch of new people (that would never be interested in video games) in ways that I wouldn’t have be able to before.

And now, I’m getting the opportunity to use my powers for good thanks to you folks at the Dream Team Project, which feels a satisfying way to round off a year of art that I created out of love for my wife…and a small mouse named ‘Mickey’.


WDW Radio 60 second drill: The 60 second drill is a series of 10 questions about Disney that have to be answered quickly and in as few words as possible.  We will ask the same questions of each WDW Radio friend featured!

1.      Favorite park?  It always has to be the Magic Kingdom – by order of preference, Orlando, Tokyo, L.A. and Paris (I have yet to visit Hong Kong)

2.      Favorite WDW snack food?  Not too much of a snacker (I’m the one in the family that orders a coffee when everyone else gets ice creams) – but if pushed, it’ll have to be a Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Sandwich – on Main Street.

3.      Favorite sound at WDW?  ‘The Sidewalks of New York’ played on Main Street – reminds me of my dad – I can’t get to the Cinderella Castle with a dry eye if this starts playing.

4.      Favorite resort hotel?  Without a doubt, Port Orleans French Quarter – made even more magical by the lovely Grandma Ethel who works at the Sassagoula  Floatworks

5.      Best souvenir ever:  The cheap light-up rose that I bought for my wife, Jayne back in 1991 on the last night of our first holiday in WDW – a silly impulsive, purchase while going for ice cream that brings the memories back every time I see it.

6.      Favorite time of year in the parks:  December – although I’d love to visit at Hallowe’en sometime

7.      Favorite time of DAY in the parks  Sunset – in that 15 minutes just as the lights are coming on – a perfect time to ride the TTA People Mover and see all the neon coming to life

8.      One thing you have not done in WDW (but want to):  Spend a day at the Parks with a sketch book doing nothing but drawing, or, work, just for a day as a cast member (although I’m drawing the line at Tinkerbell – I think my feet are too big for the shoes!)

9.      Best Disney travel advice:  Stay on property, don’t hire a car, use the transport and use that Disney Dining Plan (just back from our first time two weeks using the Plan – takes all the stress out of the credit card bill at the end of the trip and there’s more food than any human can possibly handle…except perhaps, for our teenager.)

10.   Favorite Disney character:  After nearly a year of drawing the little guy, I will have to confess it still is Mickey…although he has to be dressed as a Jedi…

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