Can I get a Droppaburger with Cheese, a large Droppafries and a Droppashake?  And can we order out of big head of Droppa Poppa, the Droppaburger mascot?  Droppaburger: We drop it, you eat it.

Travis Coburn’s aesthetic reminds me of 1950′s magazine illustrations.

The retro technique is nicely and consistently done, however it doesn’t overpower the subject matter.

My favorite is this portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Take some time to peruse his portfolio website.

Wesley Allsbrook’s work is lively! Most of it illustrates movement, but even her still poses are vibrant with energy. I love the inky brush work and the way she uses color.

Check out her portfolio site and her blog for more.

I’ve always been intrigued by how the brain translates two dimensional blobs of tint or color into tangible, emotional references. The idea that a bunch of pigment can “move” someone is incredible. Some artists tend to push the limits of what is possible on this front. For example, Chistian Faur is using hand-forged crayons to create mosaic art. I assume his process is something like this: 1. Find or take a photograph to duplicate. 2. Use a computer to pixelate the image to a manageable rendering. 3. Select a color palette. 4. Forge crayons in those colors. 5. Assemble.

While that process is certainly not very romantic, the results are amazing. His site is full of examples, so keep browsing.

Although Moose is based on me, and is the dad in this strip, I give him the upbeat and lively attitude I wish I had (instead of the grumpy soul I am in real life).  

One note about Moose is that in the beginning of the strip, I never could get the shape of his head right, so, it became a running gag while we were in the pencil and ink phase to give him a different shaped head in every strip.  I finally corrected this when I went digital, though.

Moose and I took this picture in Jefferson, TX.

Josh Keyes art is a little twisted. It is beautifully rendered, but the subjects are slightly off. I’m a fan. Check out his gallery of paintings.

Von Glitschka AKA “Vonster” recently moved his professional location from Art Backwash to the slightly more professional sounding “http://drawsigner.com/“. This guy is a gem in the design community. He is talented, successful and generous. You have probably seen his designs if you watch professional sports. Many teams have used his artwork. While he is fiercely protective of his artwork (which routinely gets stolen) he also gives so much to the community for free. His tutorials are always informative.

For example, this is an old Vector Portrait How-To tutorial he posted back in 2009. It explains the process he uses to take photographs and turn them into vector portraits. (For the non-computer-aided-designer crowd: vector drawings are done on the computer. They are stored as a series of points instead of pixels. Because of that, they can scale from microscopic to skyscraper size and never lose resolution. Very handy for printers!)

I was watching an old video clip of Jerry from Tom and Jerry dancing with (I think) Fred Astaire.  It occurred to me that although most of the characters in my comic strips have been based on a real life person or animal, I have never really done any artwork that showed the comic character in the same frame as his real life counterpart. 

So, this is the first in a series of the comic character and their match in the real world.

Munkin is the official mascot/logo dog of 148 Studios.  At times, you can find him sleeping in the logo, looking curious in the logo and even relieving himself on the logo (refresh the 148 Studios page enough and you will see it).  The real life Munkin is a dog that I got an email on from Petfinder and I discovered that he was in a shelter, but not one of the no-kill kind.  Something about this little guy made me drive all the way to Oklahoma to rescue him, and I have never done anything like that before.  It was a gamble, but I can tell you, it paid off.  He has a mowhawk (although he has it slicked down in the photo), and while the eyes of most dogs reflect a red or a yellow hue, his reflect blue.  I’m just not sure why.  He’s part Pug, part Cairn Terrier, and part Brussels Griffon, 100% awesome.

Watch for more of these in the weeks to come.