The Art of Aaron Blaise

A few years back at Disney we created a book called Torch Tiger. It was a collection of works by Disney artists and the content had to be each individuals interpretation of the title. My wife Karen had passed away the year before after a long battle with breast cancer and I wanted to do something for her. This is what I produced.

Here are a couple of digital lion paintings I did this week.

This was a pen drawing done during one of our story meetings.

This was one of two brothers I observed in Samburu National	Park, Kenya in 1998

I observed this lion out on the Masai Mara, Kenya in 1998

This was another pen drawing done during one of our story meetings.

My passion is drawing and painting wildlife.

These are two images I’ve created in the last couple of days. I love to sit and create fanciful creatures like these. I’ve gotten into mixing my photos with my paintings to come up with what I feel is an interesting look.

Drawing and painting the animal world has been an obsession of mine since I was a child. I’ve been blessed with the experiences of having traveled the world photographing and painting the natural world. Everything I paint or draw, I’ve seen in their natural environment.

Here I wanted to create what I thought a real mermaid might look like. I wanted it to be something that you might actually see out in the ocean. I had recently designed elves with the same notion and so I wanted to give it a shot for creatures under the sea.

Please look to my King of the Elves post to see many more designs from this project

 So when we were designing our elves, we wanted them to feel as if they could actually be out in the forest. If they had been there for thousands of years without having been seen, how did they do it? We looked at animals that use camouflage and mimicry to conceal themselves. Eventually the elves began to take on a unique feel. They began to grow leaves right out of their bodies! We thought that there are so many insects, lizards and birds that match the foliage that they live in then why not the elves?

Here is some work from a bird project we were recently developing…

I love painting birds! They were the first animal I ever painted, and from the time I could hold a paintbrush they have crept into my work continuously. Gulls are a particular favorite of mine.

Here are a few random gull paintings of mine:

watercolor

oil on canvas

oil on board

oil on board

oil on board

oil on board

Here is a good example of my digital photos and digital painting mixed.

This was my desk inside my tent in Kenya.