Just a few more things I found on PLURK the past couple days. Very interesting community there, always sharing some of the best stuff.

Thanks to everyone on PLURK who post these wonderful. Wish I had original links to give credit for the creators . . .

If anyone know who the above is by, please let me know. It reminds me in the best way of the FAT HEROES  from Zillabean on Deviant art from a couple years back:

Gallery

Just a couple random things that were being shared by our awesome friends on Plurk:

So you have probably seen our mascot, the dirty ol’ bastard holding the charred hotdogs, or at the very least the weiners (or our weiners). That piece of artwork, which our webpage doesn’t quite do justice so we will be releasing the full design as some desktop art, was done by a very talented artist friend of our, Eric Gapstur.

Since I basically stalk his Twitter and Twitpic feeds quite extensively, I see he recently posted steps of his work in progress, which will give you an idea the amount of work and thought that can go into creating a comic strip. All the art below can be enlarged by clicking on it.

You can find Eric Gapstur on Twitter at twitter.com/ericgapstur

That is the rough idea of how an artist wants the panels to lay out, where they want the character, and other basic directions sketched out simply so they have something to reference while doing the pencils, and this makes it easier to also see what works and to change what is needed.

Next comes up the pencils, and you see a panel was added in the center of the you gentleman falling. Depending on the artist, these can be much more rough or clean, and can be for a variety of reasons. Some pencilers like to give the inker a lot of area and opportunity to apply their trade. When an artist is doing the penciling and the inking by themselves, the artist tends to do the pencils much quicker as they know they can do tweaks and corrections while laying the ink down.

Next up come the inks, where an artist adds depth and shading, carefully defining forms of characters and objects in the work. Line weight and perspective can be a very delicate process to learn on how to apply it correctly to help center the reader’s focus where it should be in the panel  and to also to make things appear correct in the reader’s brain as not to distract them. The reader may not know what is off, but that something is, and then they are taken out of the experience.

After all of this, if the piece is to remain un-colorized, all that is really left is to clean up that last remaining lines and do some final touchups. During this step, many artists will do some more work to smooth out areas, or to make it even more appealing to the eye with gradients or a wash to areas.

I would also like to clear things up, as I am no artist (ask anyone who has played Pictionary with me), this is just a simple explanation to some folks who might not know how many revisions artwork can go through until they are finished, and some of the steps involved. If you are an artist and would like to provide a step by step example (with more precises and accurate descriptions of the techniques going on, then please feel free to email us at burntweiners@gmail.com

And just to mention once again, you can find Eric Gapstur on Twitter at twitter.com/ericgapstur

In one of the most awesome blogs to be placed on the internet in 2010, you can find top talent drawing some of their favorite characters. Who do you ask? Well how about Andy Kuhn, Chris Samnee, Tom Fowler, Francesco Franavilla, Mitch Breiteiser, Nathan Fairbairn, Ron Salas, Evan Shaner and several other awesome artists!

Then the deal is that there is a character for that particular week, and most of the artists will take a crack at making that character the most awesome they possibly can . . . and BOY DO THEY! You will find Zorro, Firebreather, Superman, Doctor Who, Sandman, Dan Dare and Popeye to name a few!

Check out some of the samples you will find there:

This is my contribution to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art’s Art on the Rocks fundraiser.

Check out some wonderful art done by a friend of our Mister Eric Gapstur (and yes, he makes us call him that, and to keep a minimum distance of 20 feet). This is his submission for a fundraiser here for the Cedar Rapid’s Museum of Art called Art On The Rocks. Awesome perspective and captures the fun of being a bunch of dumb kids, which, hey, weren’t we all at one time?

Be sure to follow him on twitter at @ericgapstur

Also, please follow us . . . or hook us up with corndogs. Either way, you are A-OK in our books!

It’s Funny . . . you know it is, so just go read it. Oh fine, you need proof, check out the below, but don’t come groveling back to me when you realize I am right and you want me to take you back, CAUSE I WON’T! I’m sorry baby, sometimes Ike Turner just gets sooo mad . . .

The machine has spoken, and it said “God” . . .

Um, check out this dude’s blog, buy some art, wash your body in some eviscerated entrails and buckets of blood. Every nightmare I have ever had is somehow recreated in vivid and wicked ways upon a canvas, and I for one FUCKING LOVE IT!

This guy pointed out a few things I took for granted in the layout and design of this book . . .