For the last few months I’ve been working as a freelance character designer on 3-2-1 Penguins!, a new animated series on NBC. The premiere episode airs this Saturday (10:30am Central, check your local listings).
3-2-1 Penguins! is about four wacky penguins (Zidgel, Fidgel, Midgel, and Kevin) who travel the universe along with two kids, Jason and Michelle. Imagine Star Trek as a screwball action-comedy, raplace Captain Kirk with a clueless penguin with a pompadour, and you’ve got the basic concept. Penguins was created by Big Idea (the studio behind VeggieTales), so each episode is built around a Bible lesson form the book of Proverbs. Some of the scripts are really wacky and hilarious, so I’m hoping the show gains a solid audience.
Big Idea owns all of the artwork I’ve done for the series, but they’ve graciously allowed me to post it on the blog—as long as I don’t show any artwork for a given episode until after that episode airs. So watch for lots of concept sketches in the coming weeks.
I didn’t actually start work on the show until episode #2 (which airs next Saturday), but if you happen to catch the premiere please leave a comment to let me know what you think. I’m not fishing for compliments. I genuinely want to know your honest opinion. It airs this Saturday at 10:30am CST on NBC.