Harriet Burns aka the first female Imagineer

I decided to push my comfort limits to find more inspirational people from real life. So in my research, I came upon Harriet Burns who was not only the first woman in Disney's Imagineering but also a key player in creating my favorite Disney attraction from ALL TIME: The Enchanted Tiki Room.

After reading a bit about her I made a collage for inspiration and reference. I focused a lot on her hair, her neck scarfs, and her general looks since she was known for looking on point always.

Now, she is the one of the few people who have a window on Main St. as a tribute to her work so this became an important thing for my initial pencil sketch. I transferred this sketch to my Ipad and kept cleaning it on Procreate. I decided to add a few birds as a tribute to the Tiki Room.

I also decided to create a custom color palette for this portrait. The background texture is inspired by the Tiki Room dress that is sold in the parks. Yes, also one of my favorite garments. The top letters are inspired by the tiki aesthetic but the text is taken straight from her window.

I decided to go for a more cartoonish look in order to challenge myself. In this case, I decided to stick with flat shading and some oil textures for the hair and feathers. I wanted to achieve a balance between textures and plain color.