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OREM — A women studying illustration at Utah Valley University is receiving a lot of attention for her reimagined drawings of Disney animals turned human.
Sophomore Alaina Bastian has been drawing since elementary school, where she was bullied. One of the only ways she got positive attention was through her drawings, she said.
"People just always liked what I drew and so I really took to it, especially in fourth-grade when I realized that I may have potential for it, so I just started drawing constantly," Bastian said.
The Provo native has been working on finding her own style, but said she has a talent for replicating other artists' styles.
Bastian noted the popularity of artists reimagining Disney characters and said she has seen her share of Disney animals reimagined as humans.
"I think this particular generation was almost raised by Disney, and so we're totally obsessed," Bastian said.
With the utmost respect for these artists' designs, Bastian said she is not trying to copy them, but rather create her own version as well as a tribute to what those have done before her.
Bastian loves keeping characters look like who they are and tried to draw them true to the style of the movie they were portrayed in. She also draws inspiration from the musical interpretation of the Disney movies, such as "The Jungle Book" and "The Lion King."
"It's been really funny, some of the comments, they're like 'these just look like them, like anthropomorphized or whatever,'" Bastian said. "And I'm like, that's kind of the idea, I'm trying to keep consistency within the character by using the same eyes or using the same nose but translating it in a more human way."
Bastian drew the pictures with pencil and scanned them in for digital coloring. She first posted them to Deviantart and Tumblr, but posted them on Bored Panda Monday, where they've seen about 219,000 views.
In the future, Bastian hopes to become a character designer for Disney or for another animation studio such as DreamWorks or Blue Sky Studios.
