Don Williams, head sketch artist for Disney. If you see a Disney Character on a brochure, billboard, or anything that doesn’t animate, Don Williams drew it. He has been with Disney since the mid ‘70’s; but it wasn’t always that way. Last month I saw Don (I’ll call him “Don” and pretend we are close friends) do some live sketches (amazing) and tell his story. Seems that in the 1970’s Don was a banker and aspiring artist in the New England area . Loved to draw Disney characters. One month Don hung some of his art in the bank for customers to see. A local news crew did a feature story. One of the bank employees (a janitor) was so taken with the art that he sent the news video to Disney. The Disney company and Don eventually began communicating and told Don “You are good, but we need to see more. Do some sketches and send them to us.” For years, Don’s dream was to work for Disney. He did about 100 sketches the 1st week and sent them South to Disney. They responded: “Keep them coming.” Don continued his pace; for 2 years. 100 sketches a week for 2 years. Do the math. It’s pretty impressive. As time went on, Disney was not pursuing Don so he decided to pursue them. He quit his job at the bank and loaded up the family and moved to Orlando with no promise of anything. He figured that being closer to Disney would get him closer to his dream. Continuing to draw 100 sketches like a mad-man, Don went to the Human Resource department day after day for a job, any job, at Disney. As he was about to take a job in a Disney related hotel as a night shift maintenance supervisor, a sketch artist job in one of the parks came available. With his foot finally in the door, Don continued to work and years later found his way to the top of the Disney art department. Sounds like Don wanted the job pretty bad.
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