Super Beard Bros Artwork

thumbnail art by Jetpackbraggin

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Donkey Kong Country 3 - Feb 13, 2018

Oh dang, I got to do DKC 2 and 3! 

I never had a SNES as a kid, so I completely missed out on this series. Originally this one didn’t feature the alligator or whatever enemy, and I think one of the sketches had Bippo Kong Alex with a pacifier around his neck. Me and my pals decided that was a little too weird to include. I think my only instructions on this one was for Jirard to NOT be Drippy Kong. He just hated the big baby.

Easter Egg: Doug is hiding behind Alex in the back.

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Sonic Mania - Aug 24, 2017

In my opinion, this is easily in my top 5 thumbnails I worked on. I had learned my lessons from Sonic Adventure: Draw Jirard and Alex dressed as Sonic characters, not Sonic characters with beards; plan your damn backgrounds. I had a blast putting this one together, everything just felt right while drawing it. Sonic Mania’s opening cinematic is what Sonic should have been for years, and recreating it was pure joy. 

Easter Egg: Knuckles is still spinning on that ring, a direct reference to Sonic Mania’s intro

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Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime - Feb 14, 2018

There’s a very good reason why this thumbnail doesn’t feature the game at all: I had no idea what they were going to play. I think doing a Valentine’s Day episode was a super last minute idea, and I got the assignment on Feb 13th, so I had to jam this out super quick. I think I was told the game but I really had no time to research. The short window I had to draw this is why you only see one of everyone’s arms, I didn’t have the time to make more complex poses. I doubled down on adorable and I think it came out pretty well. Amanda and Kellz are great, and I was excited to later draw them for the Yoshi’s Island thumbnail.

That Wallace is real good.

Easter Egg: Gay Pride rainbow requested by Editor Chris in the bottom right corner. Not really hidden but a fun touch for a great dude.

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Journey - Jan 16, 2018

Normally with thumbnails my goals are to represent the game and create a funny image. Journey is such a chill game that I wanted to keep it very simple. If I were to tackle this one again I’d try to do a more lineless art style all through. I’ve dabbled in fantasy style landscapes, but those were mostly bleak settings. It was pleasant to do a more relaxed look.

Easter Egg: I guess the TOVG fist on Jirard? Not really hidden. 

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Knack - May 15, 2018

I’m pretty iffy on this one. Knack as a character isn’t very fun to draw. Whenever something like that happens the solution is trying to bend the design to where you’re having fun with it, and I just couldn’t crack it. I did at least end up redrawing Alex and touching up some colors. I wouldn’t mind taking another crack if they do Knack 2. Jack. 

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Mario Party 4 - June 11, 2018

I think this is the first series that didn’t feature Jirard or Alex. Guest episodes always provide a challenge in so much as creating not only a fun design but also trying to get their likeness to some semblance of being recognizable. I had already drawn Chris a few times and I’ve done work for Brett on Couch Fighters, but Frazier and Barryte were drawn rarely if at all. That being said, I think I did well. For some reason I’ve stuck with the idea that Jirard and a few others have full eyes but almost everyone else always have dot eyes. It’s a little extra work, but giving Chris rainbow eye colors has been a fun touch. I do hope they continue to do Mario Party games together, their chemistry is very entertaining.

Easter Egg: Angel Toad is hidden down in the right hand corner, normally obscured by YouTube’s timestamp. This is an artistic choice, since angels are not allowed in Hell.

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SCF - BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle - June 6, 2018

I did this in one night. 

For some reason, I tend to come down to the wire on Couch Fighters thumbnails, and I honestly can’t remember if this was the case here. Sometimes when I’m in the zone, I can just jam a thing out and it turns into some of my best work. This is just a slick thumbnail. Brett probably still thinks I hid Garfield in there somewhere (I didn’t).

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Portal - Feb 17, 2018

This was the first time I experimented with using the pencil tool for finished line art and shading. As I said before, the process is really time consuming, so I don’t do it very often. Originally I planned to have Jirard’s butt sticking out of a portal in the background, but ultimately I felt like Alex getting the cake was a good enough goof. I really enjoy how this one came out, and the crew liked how different it was.

Easter Egg: Stanley mmmmmmm Tucci hiding above the T in Portal

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Zombies Ate My Neighbors - Aug 1, 2017

You can still see at the end of the first couple episodes that the thumbnail with gun Alex wasn’t the original one. At first I had Alex mimicking the scared lady on the box art but was requested to make him a more active participant since they were going two player. Changes like this are actually pretty rare because for the most part I have free reign to do what I think looks best. More often than not I’ve completely scrapped thumbnails and redrew them from scratch just because I wasn’t happy with how it looked. Speaking of being unhappy, I’m glad this is one of the rare games the boys chose not to finish, they just weren’t having fun towards the end. 

This is yet another example of a game logo I completely remade.

Easter Egg: Editor Chris in the center of the spiral.

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L.A. Noire The VR Case Files - Jan 7, 2018

Michael Barryte: You know this is just a One and Done episode, right?

The first completed Beard Bros series I watched was Saw. The first ongoing one was LA Noire. I still think that’s the series where SBB really found it’s stride, and I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to do my spin on it. Rather than using my normal brushes, I refined this one with the pencil tool for all the line art and shading. I’ve only done this a small handful of times because it’s far more time consuming. But I like the effect it gives off and for certain projects it sets a more unique tone. I also wanted to capture Mustache Variant Alex in at least one thumbnail.

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The Typing of the Dead Overkill - Aug 13, 2017

Okay, so originally they planned on playing the first Tying of the Dead game but ended up not being able to find a copy. However, having Dreamcasts with giant batteries strapped to your back is too funny of a look that I wasn’t going to abandon it, game be damned. I had a really good time coming up with the mispelling gags, and yes, those keyboards were a pain to draw. This was also one of the first thumbnails I did where I realized that they all don’t need detailed backgrounds. Sometimes a texture is good enough.

Easter Egg: There’s a tiny Jirard in Alex’s beer; The beer is called Roast Bud, an injoke between me and my friend Patrick; sleeping Jirard is a reference to that time he fell asleep during Banjo Kazooie (maybe? i dunno)

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Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare - Sept 2, 2017

Any misgivings I had about my original Red Dead thumbnail were rectified here. At this point I had been doing thumbnails for nearly a year and was way more confident in my abilities. It was fun to play around with different effects and I believe the tones I added for shading really helped give this a unique feel. This one is still very much a favorite of my friends. This is also one of the rare games played on Super Beard Bros that I had already played. Despite working for gamers, I don’t play super often. 

Easter Egg: Frazier appears to the right of the game logo, and appropriately I don’t think anyone ever told me they had found him.

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Red Dead Redemption - July 8. 2017*

I loved the playthrough of Red Dead Jirard and Alex started, and was excited to see the series come back through Gamewisp. As a huge fan of old school westerns like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, I was really looking forward to this one. I look at it now, and while I believe the chicken is amazing, the thumbnail itself is something I could do so much better if I were to redraw it today. I don’t kick myself too much for things like that, I was and still am learning.

Easter Egg: On the back right building is supposed to be a photo of Satchell Drakes, but me being inexperienced, made it too small and unfortunately it isn’t very clear. 

*The series originally debuted on Dec 1, 2016 with a beautiful Dan Jones thumbnail

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Super Mario Galaxy - March 24, 2017

I was still very much in my feeling out process on this one. I don’t think it’s bad, but I feel like I could’ve done a little more with this one. That being said, the Alex luma is pretty dang cute.

Easter Egg: There’s an incredibly faint Projared hidden in the Galaxy’s X, mostly done as a fun goof for Jirard and Alex.

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Dark Souls 3 - Jan 22, 2017*

This one is interesting. The original thumbnail was done by Dan Jones, and it’s truly beautiful, but at the time no one knew Brett was going to jump in for the remainder of the series. Ultimately this benefited me, since now I got to incorporate the apathetic Jirard character for a goof and know about the running Cringe gag. 

Easter Egg: The binch face makes an appearance on the cross guard - Ted appears on the pommel.

*I think this thumbnail debuted in episode 20 something? 

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Mega Man X - March 5, 2017

Mega Man X Maverick Hunter - April 1, 2017

Mega Man X Maverick Hunter (Vile) - April 13, 2017

This project was essentially 2 1/2 thumbnails. If my memory is correct, Maverick Hunter was originally going to just be one bonus episode, but the bois got a little carried away and decided to do 3 full playthroughs of Mega Man X. Looking back, my only grievance is the logo placement in the Maverick thumbnails. I could’ve gotten away with shrinking it a little and placing the logo behind Alex.

Easter Egg: On Jirard’s shoulder is a little “binch” face that my pal Emily came up with. I’ve hid it in various places in a lot of works.

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Donkey Kong Country 2 - Jan 28, 2017

I feel like this was my first high standard thumbnail I had done. The framing isn’t bad, I did my first real prop detail work on the treasure chest, and the whole thing just feels fun. The DKC 2 logo was recreated in what can be a recurring problem, not finding a nice resolution version of the logo. The series would later feature Norman Caruso, The Gaming Historian, for a few episodes. I continue to periodically work with Norm on episodes of his show, most notably the Tetris episode. 

Easter Egg: In between the two golden beards is a vhs tape that was to represent the lost episode of Parental Control featuring Frazier. I would get better at fun hidden details.