A cool artist's sketch depicting a smiling Mickey Mouse carrying an enormous faceted diamond is one of the fun souvenirs commemorating Disneyland Resort's year-long Diamond Celebration, which launched this past weekend. This artwork includes the D60 logo that signifies the 60th anniversary of the Happiest Place on Earth.



The Mickey Mouse/Diamond sketch is the newest offering in Disney's Artist Sketch Program, which allows youngsters and those young at heart to go home with an actual hand-rendered drawing of their favorite Disney characters.

The talented artists in the program are able to personalize the sketch by adding a special date, name or message, according to Michelle Harker, manager of merchandise marketing & communications for the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif.

In a recent blog posting, Harker called the artwork a "diamond in the rough" because the "rough" sketch shows the basic outline of the character and the diamond but has no fill color or background. It's the type of artwork that would be used on a storyboard.

The new sketches are available at two locations: Disneyana in Disneyland Park or Off the Page in Disney California Adventure Park. Sketches range in price from $39.95 for one character to $124.95 for six characters.



Diamonds dominate Disney's 60th anniversary branding. All of its celebration themes are stylized with diamond-like brilliance and faceting. Even the cover of Disney fan club magazine twenty-three includes diamond artwork. If you were wondering, the fan club's "twenty-three" moniker honors the year 1923, when Walt Disney left Kansas City and headed for Hollywood to develop Disney Studios.



Last month we reported that Disney would be giving away weekly prizes that included one- and two-carat genuine diamonds laser engraved especially for Disney. Some Disney Diamonds will commemorate dates with particular significance to the history of the park. The one-carat Disney Diamonds will be paired with a stay in the Disneyland Dream Suite.



Disney officially kicked off the Diamond Celebration with a 24-hour party that started early Friday morning. Excited fans began lining up on Thursday so they could be among the first to enjoy the new attractions, which includes three new nighttime spectaculars. At Disney California Adventure, Neil Patrick Harris teams with Mickey Mouse to tell the story of Walt Disney's dream of Disneyland in a show called "World of Color - Celebrate!"

"Paint the Night" parade is described as a river of color flowing down Main Street, U.S.A., with spectacular floats, Disney characters and LED lights. "Disneyland Forever" is a new fireworks show that raises the bar on nighttime pyrotechnics.

Images via disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog