Disney Characters Brilliantly Transformed into Real-Life People

A 7 years long side-project by Jirka Väätäinen has touched the hearts of many by filling them with the most beautiful sense of nostalgia. “Back in 2011, I just randomly thought I’d challenge myself and have a little fun in Photoshop and explore what the character of Ursula from The Little Mermaid could look like in real life,” Väätäinen said in an interview done for ‘My Modern Met’. “Starting out, I did not expect people to see these, nor did I know I would still be continuing the series after seven years.” When asked about techniques he used Väätäinen said: “It’s all digital work done only using Photoshop, mostly photo compositing, photo manipulation, and digital painting. I combine, manipulate, and blend together elements, textures, and features from dozens and dozens of real-life photos to come up with my vision of the character I am working on. Basically, I use image sources as both my inspiration and my color palette. All of this photo compositing and manipulation is brought together by doing the digital painting by hand.” Check out the full interview on ‘My Modern Met’, and of course Jirka Väätäinen official page and Instagram for more of his great digital art pieces.

Cruella de Vil – Digital transformation by Jirka Väätäinen

Ursula – “The Little Mermaid”

Evil Queen – “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

Captain Hook – “Peter Pan”

Princess Jasmine – “Aladdin”

Belle – “Beauty and the Beast”

Moana

Queen Elsa – “Frozen”

Princess Anna – “Frozen”

Tinkerbell – “Peter Pan”

Prince Eric – “The Little Mermaid”

Hercules

Aladdin

Prince Charming – “Cinderella”

Prince Naveen – “The Princess and the Frog”

Ariel – “The Little Mermaid”

Merida – “Brave”

Mulan