Birthday Present

So, for my 18th birthday I was able to visit Pixar Studios in Emeryville, CA! ( I live in Sacramento CA so it was only an hour and a half drive) Pixar studios does not have public tours so as you can see I was very very very shocked when I found out (and teared up a bit). I didn't believe it until I saw my parents smiling at me and that look of "no really we are serious". I was utterly speechless. Apparently, my dad has connections so that is how my dad and I were able to get a tour of Pixar. I have no intention to make this blog post about me bragging about being able to visit Pixar but I thought that I should share this awesome experience with you guys!

This was a sketch I did right before we entered the gates and I was so excited that I drew my own left hand wrong! 

When we arrived and parked one of the first things that I saw was the Monsters University gate!

Next we entered the Steve Jobs building to meet up with our tour guide and we got name tags that had the alien from Toy Story and it said "Strangers from the outside!". As we were waiting I took some pictures of myself next to some famous cars!

Once we met up with our tour guide who was a part of the security officers in Pixar. She showed us around in the Steve Jobs building and on the second floor we saw some diagrams of Pixar's story process of Monsters University. The entire studio area was themed in Monsters University, (they theme the studios when their new movie is released so the next one will be The Good Dinosaur) they had concept art of characters that did not make it in to the movie, 3D sculptures of characters including the headmaster, and they had MU flyers everywhere.

Unfortunately,  I could not take pictures of any of the art on the second level because it was employee art and not Pixar art if you know what I mean. They had storyboards from Brave that were breath-taking and inspiring. I got to take a quick look at some of the interns there who were working and I totally want to do that over a summer! They also had these life size statue things of The Incredibles' family so I did what any person would do and posed up next to them with my dad! 

We could not look into certain parts of the building because spoilers. ;)

Next she took us to another building and there was this huge fireplace and while it didn't burn wood it looked stunning. There really wasn't much else to see in there because everywhere else the employees were working on future projects. 

At the end I went to the gift shop that was only open for a short time and I bought a Pixar Studios shirt, a MU poster, and a Pixar sketchbook! :) 

Overall, this was THE BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT EVER. I hope to one day (possibly) be able to get an internship and work at Pixar! :)