Artsy.net: A Cool New Site to See

Back in 2009, whilst at the Academy of Art University, one of my assignments was a replication of a Rembrandt painting (above). Thanks to the amazing omnipresence of The Internet, I was recently contacted by the people over at Artsy.net who found my blog and figured I and my followers might enjoy their website. For those like myself who are unaware of what Artsy is, Artsy’s mission is to make all the world’s art accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. Artsy's Rembrandt van Rijn page provides visitors with Rembrandt's bio, over 250 of his works, exclusive articles, and up-to-date Rembrandt exhibition listings.

This is a very cool website that I will continue to explore in the future. Needless to say, I am a firm believer in the power of The Arts and of art study, particularly the Greats of the past. And Rembrandt was most certainly a Great. Go explore the site for yourself, and feel free to leave a comment or two linking to any cool stuff you find there!

And, for my followers from down under, The Art Gallery of New South Wales is set to open an exhibit on November 11, 2017 titled Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum. Sounds like quite the exhibit, so be sure to check it out and drop me a line about how it is.

Beer, Trucks, and Rednecks

Just got back from Georgia; nothing but beer, trucks, and rednecks! *

(*Just kidding! But if you're into those things, and have three friends, feel free to use this image to paste your own heads on the bodies and enjoy a personalized celebration of YOU!)

A New Dawn...

Los Angeles circa 2004

In the summer of 2004, I took a "course" at the Art Institute of Atlanta that was basically designed around allowing students to attend SIGGRAPH, the annual conference on computer animation and techniques.  From August 8-12, I got to fly out to Los Angeles for the first time and attend SIGGRAPH at the Los Angeles Convention Center.  Over the four day span, I attended many presentations, visited several booths, and even left behind a business card or two (many of which were--and this is no joke--on the tops of trash can bins and lunch tables, as I thought someone important might see them and be curious...and then give me a job) (would've been a great story if it had worked!).  When we got back, and to pass the "class", we had to do a presentation on one of the events we had seen and/or one of the people we had met.

SIGGRAPH 2004

In May 2004, Shrek 2 had come out and was still raking in the Ogre Bucks.  On one of the mornings of the conference, I attended a special presentation about Shrek 2 lead by the creators of the film.  Co-director Kelly Asbury was the one who talked about the Story part of development, and seeing as how I was focusing on storyboarding at school, he was the one I did my presentation on when we got back to Atlanta.  I researched his history (something that was very hard to do back in the day, with the invention of the Internet) and even bought some of the books he had illustrated to use as visuals for my presentation (also very hard to get a hold of back in the day, with the invention of Amazon.com).

Kelly Asbury books

"Did you go up to him afterwards and talk to him?" my instructor, Tom Baker, asked me immediately. "N-no," I replied after a brief, taken-aback pause.  I was far too shy and wouldn't even have known what to say.  I was just some kid in a crowd of thousands.  What did I have to offer this man??



Flash forward nine years and three months later: I'm living in Los Angeles, have obtained an MFA from the Academy of Art, and have been asked by Sony Pictures Animation to present my work to their recruiter, Jana Day, as part of the Raising the Bar Recruiting effort at the CTN Animation Expo.  The meeting went well on that November day, but I was told that they didn't have any openings at that time.  A standard thing to hear at these events.  November begets December, December begets January...and I get an email from Jana asking me if I'd be interested/available to interview for a story position starting very soon on The Smurfs 3.  Of course, I was more than interested, but wasn't expecting more than a pleasant interview and the endearing knowledge that, by getting on the radar of these animation companies, I was that much closer to my dream job.

So on January 13, 2014 at 4:00pm, I walk into a room (wearing my Smurfiest blue plaid shirt, of course), and who should be sitting there at the table with my website pulled up on the screen but Kelly Asbury.  I was floored.  Here, finally, was my chance to talk to the man!  I was asked to tell them a little bit about myself, so I got into Interview Mode and gave the usual speech about my schooling, where I live now, and what I've done that's storyboard artist-related, all the while wondering if telling him my story of days-gone-by is heartwarming or simply creepy.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I didn't have time to decide. Because the next words out of Mr. Asbury's mouth were "We'd like to have you onboard."  And I swear, the world slowed down for a moment as those words sank in.  And then the biggest smile came across my face.  Partially because I realized I didn't have to do a traditional interview, I suppose, but mostly because in that moment...my dream had come true.  After the years of hard work and sacrifice, I was finally going to be a Professional Story Artist.  And at Sony Pictures Animation, nonetheless.  Working on The Smurfs 3.

Wow.

It turns out that that one kid in a crowd of thousands would eventually have something to offer this man.  And yes, Mr. Baker, I can now say that I've talked to Kelly Asbury.  Thank you for encouraging me to do so.

And thank you all, as always, for your continued support and encouragement on my journey.

And be sure to see The Smurfs 3 when it releases in the summer of 2015!

Paparazzi

They just will not leave us alone... :^(

An Artist's Birthday Celebration

Today is my birthday.  A time to reflect upon the choices one has made in their life...

Below are my initial doodle and an alternate version for my Facebook Timeline.

A very special thank you to everyone who follows and (perhaps) appreciates my artwork!  I can only hope it in some small way enriches your life the way it does mine, or at the very least, leaves you with a smile. :^)

A Walk Down Memory Lane

I took a break from my regularly scheduled homework (or rather, stopped sleeping in order to create more time) to do a special little something to celebrate my parent's 30th wedding anniversary.  The project was coordinated by my sister, Tiffanie, who also planned a well-executed surprise anniversary dinner complete with plenty of neighbors, friends, family, and ME (the biggest surprise of all, since I haven't been home since January and am currently in classes).  Fun was had by all and my parents were completely surprised!

The idea behind this illustration (which was inspired by the art prints at Your Memory Lane, though highly improved upon) was to create a collection of various buildings, landmarks, icons, logos, cars, etc. that gather from and represent my parents' 30 years of marriage.  I created each person, place, and thing (even the logos) with a textured brush in Photoshop.  It was then printed (at FedEx Office, who robbed it of it's vibrancy) and framed for all to see and enjoy.  Now, for the first time ever, you can experience it in it's original RGB full-color glory!

(And, of course, I had to thumbnail it out, first.  Force of habit.)

Me? A comic book artist?!?

Back in high school, when all I knew was that I liked to draw, I had no idea where I wanted to go to college.  I was an avid comic book reader from the awesome decade that was the 1990's, so I figured comics were a great place to head.  Somewhere online, I must've found a spec-script for a six-page Spider-Man story and decided to draw out the pages to test my comic book skills.  Now, I had my own comic series going with my old best friend from Missouri when I was in middle school--and it was quite the hit among the relatives we would mail copies to--but I hadn't attempted anything on any professional level.  Sure, I had my über cool Stickman comic strips that I had been drawing since 1997, and all my classmates and teachers enjoyed those, but an actual comic book is way different from cartoony doodles on a piece of loose leaf, ruled paper!

Anywayz, I was cleaning-up some of my digital workspace and came across my scans of these six Spider-Man pages that I had drawn oh so long ago.  Without further ado, I present to you the reason that I am in Animation and not comic books:

To briefly conclude the story, when looking for colleges, I discovered that the fancy term for comic books is "Sequential Art".  Which lead me to SCAD.  Which--after a trip down to Savannah left a far too fishy smell in my nose...literally--lead me to animation and storyboarding at the Art Institute of Atlanta.  And storyboarding is really just cinematic comic book making, when you think about it.  I guess I wasn't totally clueless in high school.

A Classic Peanuts Strip

Here's a classic comic strip from the Peanuts collection that seems to fit me to the letter:

The iMac

It's been a long, long time since I've posted anything. I had to miss my last two Figure Drawing classes due to a Taylor Swift concert and a trip to San Francisco and to Minnesota. My cousin graduated from college!! Good for her! And San Francisco is truly beautiful; it will be a real adventure to live there for a few years. Oh, and I did get accepted into the Masters program at The Academy of Art University studying Animation & Visual Effects!!! :) So, that's why I haven't posted anything. Busy getting all that together, planning the move to SF, and now my summer Online classes have started. Lots of stuff going on. BUT, I did find time to get myself a new computer...and not just any computer--I got an iMac! Here are some pictures I took as I opened and began to enjoy:

It's a 24 incher. Wireless keyboard and mouse. Plus, it came with a free iPod Touch!! I was originally looking at Macbook laptops, but this was actually cheaper and...it just looks cool. Still playing around and discovering stuff. Just need to figure out how I'm going to get it out to San Francisco...

Fun Fact

I was reading this online article about body language (okay, so it was called "Decode His Body Language" and it's written by the folks at Cosmo...it was on the Yahoo! homepage, alright??) This particular paragraph I found to be cool:

He looks up and to the left. The next time you ask him a sticky
question or he wants to explain himself to you, notice which way he looks. If
his eyes move up to the right, he's recalling information from his memory. If he
looks up to the left, there's a good chance that he's inventing the
answer.

Isn't that neat? Our eyes subconsciously dart to the different sides of our brain to recall a memory or to make up a new story. Pretty interesting.

The First Cintiq Project

Well, I finally got a chance to use my fancy, expensive new Cintiq. Unfortunately, it was work-related, but I'm still pretty pleased with the results. My boss's father is a school bus driver and she wanted a banner to commemorate his retirement. So, here it is:
I'm surprised by the amount of control I seem to get with the Cintiq. Now, if I could just get used to using those shortcut buttons on the sides...

The New Love of My Life: My Cintiq

This past Monday, April 21, was my birthday. So, in honor of that combined with my tax refund, I decided to finally spoil myself and buy a Wacom Cintiq! Unfortunately, it's been a busy week, so I haven't been able to do too much with it except set it up. Below are some pictures I took whilst assembling the beast:

Fresh from the UPS delivery truck.

Oh...another box.

Fresh from being removed from the other box.

Important yellow notice.

The parts box.

Baby got back.

Set-up on the stand.

Standing up-right on the stand.

The grand unveiling!

The most beautiful thing I've ever seen...

Hooked up and working--with my Carrie Underwood desktop background.

I was able to play around with the settings and Photoshop tonight a little bit. I have to keep pinching myself--it's just too amazing. I can't wait to start working on a real project with it!

The First Post: Author's Intent

This is my first ever Blog, so . . .here goes nothin'!

In my mind, this Blog acts as the "sister site" to my online portfolio site, www.LoweQuality.com. Please give that site a gander when you get a chance. I'm hoping to post sketches, story ideas, and sources of personal inspiration on this Blog. Obviously, it will be updated more frequently than my actual website.
Thanks!
-Casey.