Archive for ‘March, 2010’
19 results.
A few weeks ago, feeling a bit cocky at how the strip has been doing lately, I was looking to cause trouble. Scott Johnson had started his new experimental strip, Shmerp, and I felt that I owed shooting off a challenge. I wanted to try something a bit different at the time, and thought that doing Shmerp with WoW screenshots would be a blast. And so, I sent Scott an email: “I challenge you to a SHMERP-off!” Scott was kind enough to accept, following with, “The only rule is hand drawn only.”
Huh.
So, as an aside, a few words on artistic skills.
I know we don’t talk much about what we do outside of the exciting, fast-paced world of MMORPG Screenshot Manipulation, but I’ve been using Photoshop since 3.0, over 10 years now. During that time, I’ve worked as a web producer, graphic designer, visual effects artist, and game artist. And the tragic (yet strangely amusing) irony is that I can’t draw. At all. I’ve tried to get better, but my visual creative outlet remains Photoshop. I can use a Wacom tablet with the best of them to do what we do here at the Daily Blink, but don’t ask me to make a doodle.
With this information at hand, I still told Scott yes, though giving him fair warning of my handicap in this area. Scott was still gracious enough to accept my partnership on a Shmerp series and let me stretch my legs a bit. This is proof positive of my continued philosophy to look before I leap and force myself to do my best in a situation that might not be the most comfortable for my skillset. A freehand drawing may not be my ticket to a steady living, but I will do my best this week to fake it.
In any case, new Shmerp panels will be appearing all week, and I just sent off my first contribution for inclusion.
This is my roundabout way of saying: I don’t usually draw. You’ve been warned. 
I hope you enjoy the first of what is to be a series of parody magazine covers we’re calling Classic Periodicals — we’ll be doing ten, one for each WoW class. The first is Warlocks, which came from an idea suggested over twitter by reader Ghodamus, one that we liked a lot and we’ve brought from concept to final image.
I have no idea what order we’ll be putting these out in, but we’re going to have a lot of fun with them over the next three weeks. Our parody cover featuring Sylvanas has remained our most popular, and I think there’s a lot more we can do with that idea.
Our Facebook page has 100 fans, and we’re far too excited about it! To celebrate this (not really) momentous (but still excellent) occasion, we’ve thrown together a small token of our appreciation for everyone.
This stylish wallpaper is 1280×1024. I will see about getting more resolutions available as quick as possible, but I wanted this to be out there along with Monday’s strip. Thanks to everyone for your continued support, and I hope in the future that we can do more than shower you with free digital images to show our gratitude. 
