Dragons: Riders of Berk - Story Test

Have you seen this show?

Based on the popular (and very well-done) movie DreamWorks How to Train Your Dragon, this new series on Cartoon Network has been simply fantastic!  It truly raises the bar in terms of quality when it comes to televised computer-generated animation.  Remember the year 2004 and DreamWorks' first foray into television animation with the NBC primetime series Father of the Pride?  They have come a long, long way both in visual quality and storytelling.  If you haven't watched Dragons yet, I recommend you head over to CN's website for the show and check out the clips and episodes they have available.  Or just go on YouTube and watch it.  It's worth your time!

Now, a year ago at this time, I had the honor of taking a class taught by three DreamWorks Story Artists (as chronicled here), one of whom was named Louie del Carmen.  Louie has since gone on to work on a little show called Dragons: Riders of Berk.  Heard of it?  You should have!  I was just talking about it above.  This connection lead me to an opportunity to test for the series (fun fact: for positions on a television series, a storyboard artist often must take a test--exemplify your work, really--to see if you're a good fit for the style of the show, much in the way an actor would audition for a part). I was given the script late Friday night and was expected to turn in the finished sequence first thing Monday morning.  On top of work and school, this was a tough weekend, but the most fun I've ever had!  Once the dust had cleared, there were things I would've changed, to be sure, but the deadline is the deadline.  And to answer the obvious question, no, I didn't get the position.  "Too talented," I heard someone say.  It was me who said that, but still.

Now that the episode the test was sampled from has aired (the pilot episode, end of Act II), I believe I am free to share my sampling with the world (in a not-for-profit way, that is).  Go find the episode online and compare!  Watch and see how they did something completely different from what I had boarded.  The "right way", you could call it, though I don't care for labels.

Anyway, here's my work, which can also be viewed on my website, LoweQuality.com.  As always, enjoy.

DreamWorks logo & Dragons logo and related characters © DreamWorks Animation

The Color Kittens Reimagined

Back in 1949, the writer of Goodnight Moon wrote a Little Golden Book called The Color Kittens about two kittens--for some reason dressed in train engineer outfits--that are trying to mix colors together to make Green.

More recently, in 2012, the writer of this blog had a class taught by the incomparable Gilbert Banducci where one of our assignments was to turn this classic tale (or "tail" haha...) (...) into a television series.  We had to pick the network, figure out the demographics, restyle the characters, select the voice talent, and pitch our new angle to the class.  I decided to play against personal "type" and skew the show to an audience older than the books target demographic, creating a show for the FX Network to air after Archer or Louie.  The show was to star the voices of Matthew Perry and Melissa McCarthy as Brush and Hush, looking something like this:

My pitch for the premise of the series was delivered in mock-book form as follows...

I think this show will definitely gain some traction with that coveted artistic cat demographic.  Your thoughts?

I Drew a Horse & Graduated from AAU

I was five.  And I drew this horse, I assume for my Auntie Pat.  I don't know why I did.  I don't know why I thought this is what a horse looks like.  But I drew a horse.  I was five.

A Horse circa 1988.

Now, I'm twenty-nine. I just got awarded a Master's of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Art University.  So I drew another horse.  I'm twenty-nine.

A Horse circa 2012.

A lot has changed during the time between these two drawings.  But one thing has not: continued support from those around me.

So I'd like to take this opportunity to not only thank my parents and family, but also every teacher, every classmate, every friend, every neighbor, every coworker, and every unknown internet passerby that has supported my artwork for all these years.

Thank you, all.

To: You
Love Casey Lowe