Spotlight On: Custom Vinylmation Artist John Ward

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Today we once again spotlight John Ward. He has an amazing custom based on a classic Fantasyland attraction.

Destination Vinylmation: Tell us about how you developed the idea for Peter Pan's Flight.
John Ward: I wanted to try and come up with something that I hadn't seen done before, and I wanted to push myself as an artist. The first thing was the I decided that I wanted to try and create something the moved on the Vinylmation, in some fashion. Then I thought that I'd probably be able to create something that would rotate around the outside of the piece, yet still be attached so the it would be all one piece. Once I had the concept for the feature I wanted, I thought about what concept I could use it with. Almost instantly I thought of Peter Pan's Flight, it's one of my favorite rides still. So had my concept, ships (the ride vehicles would rotate around over scenes from the ride. The front had to be downtown London, my favorite part of the whole ride. The reverse is Neverland, of course.

After that I had to figure out how to make it all work. How do you have something able to rotate, yet still be attached to the Vinylmation figure. I came up with using a wooden dowel and a lazy susan device.

DV: Besides the moving parts, what was the most challenging part of creating this custom?
John: Trying to sculpt 3 ships that small was quite a challenge, I tried to make them as close to looking like the actual vehicles. I think they turned out rather well, considering the size of them.

Painting the downtown London side was fun, yet very difficult. I had to make sure that the angles were consistent throughout, to where it actually looked like you were looking down from the clouds. I also knew that on one of the ears, I had to put the moon with the silhouettes of Peter and the children.

DV: What's next and how can people view your work?
I'm currently finishing up my Jafar 2.0 custom. Which is a remake of one of my very first customs. My customs can be viewed on my Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/SiberianVinylmationCustoms or on my website; www.siberianarts.com