Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
Culture > Entertainment

Disney Princesses Brought to Life Through Photo Manipulation

Have you ever wondered what Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Ariel or any of the other so-crowned Disney Princesses would look like if they were real? Well, you might have a better idea after seeing what one artist – a design student – has created.

Jirka Väätäinen, a graphic design student at the Arts University College at Bournemouth in the UK had the idea to bring Disney characters to life by using photo manipulation.

“I’ve always been interested in the way people look and what makes them unique in their appearances,” he said.

Väätäinen creates his photographic interpretations of nine Disney characters – eight princesses and one villainous sea witch – based on composite images of real women who resembled the characters. With digital painting and a finishing touch by Photoshop, the results are stunningly lifelike.

“This was a personal challenge for me to see if I could recreate characters that we all know and love, and try to maintain their unique features,” he said. “The end results are what I would imagine the characters to look like in ‘real life,’ while still staying somewhat true to the unrealistic quirks in their original character designs.”

You can check out Väätäinen’s Disney-inspired art here in this slideshow. Hopefully he’ll add some of our other favorite heroines like Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana, and Rapunzel soon. Some of them look especially realistic like Jasmine, Esmeralda, and Mulan. Who is your favorite princess, collegiettes?

Alexandra is a graduate from the University of New Hampshire and the current Assistant Digital Editor at Martha Stewart Living. As a journalism student, she worked as the Director of UNH’s Student Press Organization (SPO) and on staff for four student publications on her campus. In the summer of 2010, she studied abroad at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, in England, where she drank afternoon tea and rode the Tube (but sadly no, she did not meet Prince Harry). Since beginning her career, her written work has appeared in USA Today College, Huffington Post, Northshore, and MarthaStewart.com, among others. When not in the office, she can be found perusing travel magazines to plan her next trip, walking her two dogs (both named Rocky), or practicing ballet. Chat with her on Twitter @allie_churchill.