Monday, February 13, 2012

A Tribute to John Horny



Here is a tribute to a great artist that i wanted to do since a long time: John Horny is not only a fantastic painter but he has worked for Walt Disney Imagineering on many Disney theme parks projects including Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, Westcot, and many more. We will have a look today at some of his works for DLP beginning by one of his most known painting, i.e the great Pirates of Caribbean artwork that you can see above. Note that it's here the high-res file we used in the DLP book so it might take some time to appear on the screen.

Among the other artworks that John did for DLP was a series of paintings for Frontierland or Adventureland which served as inspiration for WDI Imagineers that were designing the lands. Let's begin by those for Frontierland which shows a series of Frontierland characters. The first one below is of course related to the Lucky Nugget Saloon.



...Just like this other artwork showing one of the girls of the saloon...



This next painting shows the blacksmith - you can see his workshop located almost in front of Big Thunder entrance.



DLP fans will recognize on this next painting the architecture of the Fuente Del Oro and, yes, the character swashbuckling on the roof in the background is Zorro!



This Indian Navajo painting is related to the Indian teepees at the entrance but also the area in the back of Frontierland, near the Cowboy Cookout Barbecue where there was a shop, now unfortunately closed, selling indian/mexican merchandise.



This last character painting is showing a medecine man selling his supposed magical potions.



For DLP Adventureland John Horny also did some brilliant artwork, and you'll find some of them in my book but here is two less known paintings, the first one below showing of course a Jungle Cruise scene. I remind you that the Jungle cruise attraction has been envisioned for DLp before WDI Imagineers changed their mind and decided to don't bring the Disneyland beloved attraction in DLP Adventureland.



This next one is even more rare as it shows what could have been built instead of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Péril coaster ride. Back in the 1990's John has been asked to create a rendering showing a coaster set in a dinosaurs paleontological field. Finally, the Indy ride is the one which was built but we could have had this Dinos coaster instead of the Temple du Péril.



Among others Disney theme parks John Horny also did some renderings for Westcot, like this one done for the Westcot Europe Bay part...



...or this one created when Hong Kong Disneyland was in its early stage. If you look well you'll see that a Lion King Pride rock might have been build in front of Tarzan Trehouse, but also that a Big Thunder Mountain was envisioned as a "future attraction" and you can see its silhouette in the background.



Most of these images are coming from John Horny website on which you can see many more of his work whether it is for Disney or Landmark, including artwork for Disney theme parks that never were.

You can also find more renderings from John in my DLP book, currently on its way to be reprinted and i remind you that you normally have just two weeks more to place your pre-order for a collector's copy. The book will be reprint for sure next month, and that's one more good reason to pre-order your collector copy right now, specially considering that during the pre-order period which will end in a few weeks you also have a 20% discount on what will be the final price of the book. I repost below the video showing you each page of the book and to know how to order and send your payment please go HERE. Paypal or bank wire transfer payments are accepted.







Pictures: copyright John Horny - Disney

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's great to get to see John's painting of Mr. Rose the Blacksmith. He had an untimely stroke and passed away just before opening Thunder Mesa, and so his daughter Lavinia Rose started running the shop and doing the smithing for the Big Thunder Mining Compampy. His only daughter looked a lot like him, but carried the name of her mother who had worked as a dancer in the Lucky Nugget Saloon. After Roses birth, her mother soon after, left town never to return. Rusty1

SWW said...

John Horny is one my favorite WDI artists... love his style.

Thanks for showing some more of his work.

Mark Hickson said...

I have a small collection of his WDI time sheets... they are the best cartoon satire ever done on WDI's day to day life. He used to make limited copies and if you came by his office and asked nicely, you would get one. He is a very funny man!

Unknown said...

I have had the pleasure to meet John in his home in LA, and can assure that he is a great person. Gently and friendly and funny to talk with.
I was on a vacation from Norway and joined my brother Arne on his work with Johns new garage doors.
John invitet us in to see his workroom where he demonstrated his technique, and showed us some of he's work. At that time he was working on a new idea on Snow White.
Two years later we dropped in againe, just for a visite. Then he told us that he was sacked from Disney after 30 years, and that he had started to worke as a freelancer. I hope that I will get the opportunity to go back to LA and meet him again.