Jirka Väätäinen, a third year student at the Arts University College at Bournemouth in the UK, spends long hours bringing Disney princesses to life. And no, he doesn’t have a fairy godmother or generous genie to help him out.

Using his graphic design background and computer smarts, Väätäinen is able share his vision of what gals like Pocahontas and Ariel would look like if they were, you know, the real-life royals next door.

In an exclusive interview with BettyConfidential, he told us, “I start by getting my hands on various photos of people that somehow remind me of the character. I end putting a lot of photos together, taking a feature from here and there, compositing and blending these to create my vision. The features and elements are further enhanced by doing digital painting by hand. All of this I do in Photoshop.”

The young artist’s work with this group of pretty princesses (eight in total, plus one villain) all began with an infamous purple witch.

“It all started with my fascination with the character Ursula from The Little Mermaid,” Väätäinen explained. “I have always been interested in character design, as well as the way people look and what makes them unique in real life. So I guess I just wanted to explore that, and gave myself a little challenge and decided to bring Ursula to life. It was such a fun little pastime that I decided to try the same thing with other Disney characters as well.”

We think admirers out there owe a little praise to the big bad Ursula: after all, it’s not every day that a sea monster is the muse for such a creative collection!

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So what’s next for this talented student? Um…a few dozen trips to the library.

“The main thing for me at the moment is to concentrate on my university work,” Väätäinen said.

Fair enough, but in case you’ll be stalking his blog for new masterpieces (like we already are), expect to see Princess Tiana and Snow White after those research papers have been turned in!

Diana Denza is a regular contributor to BettyConfidential.

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