Not Much Blogging, But Still Arting

I’m probably never blogging in any meaningful way on WordPress ever again, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t still been collecting cards and doing stuff.  In fact, dedicating approximately zero seconds to this blog over the past several months has freed up enough time that even my uncannily lazy & hopelessly unfocused ass has been able to settle down a bit here & there to create a decent amount (for me anyway) of art.  So I figure I might as well show off a few of my better works from the “after I bought a tablet & started using Instagram” era (established early July, 2015).

Rey Star Wars Sketch Cover..

First up is the most recent, a Star Wars Shattered Empire #1 sketch cover of Rey from the upcoming Force Awakens.  I think I spent somewhere between five and six hours on this early Saturday morning.  Turned out alright. 😉

Kyle and Jake..

You’ll notice the faces are more accurate than a lot of my baseball sketch cards these days, because I just grabbed the reference photos off the internets instead of trying to work from a tiny baseball card.  Thanks, tablet!

Bo Jackson sketch card..

See what I mean?  Not a terrible coloring job at least, despite using filtery, washed out A&G as reference.  Meh, I like this card less every single time I look at it.  Let’s just move on.

Lou Gehrig sketch card..

They turn out alright sometimes though. I’m not entirely displeased with my performance on Lou anyway.  Now might be a good time to remind everyone that, while technically I am doing this for my health (I’ve noted before, arting is good for my emotional state), I would very much like to turn my art around for a little extra cash, or at the very least, some nice new cards to add to my personal collection.  So if you see something you like, do not hesitate to leave a comment or email me or tweet me or something so we can work out a deal!

Kershaw!

Moving on, we have this Clayton Kershaw I drew/inked up well before I had the tablet/Instagram, but didn’t get around to coloring until a little while after.

Mr. Terrific..

If you’ve ever noticed I do way more DC sketch cards than Marvel, the reason pretty much entirely is because my dad has way more DC books with excellent photo reference.  He does have lots of Marvel books too, but they aren’t nearly as photo-heavy as the DC ones, which was kinda important when I didn’t have any way to access the interwarbs over there.

Heel & Face Captains..

I’m not sure why I leaned so heavily on dad’s books for reference after I bought the tablet, but apparently I did for at least a little while.

Big Barda sketch card..

This Barda sketch card is a very rare and special occurrence!  It’s one of the only cards I’ve ever completed where I liked the pencils & inks well enough, but felt like my color job almost ruined it.

Charlotte/Becky Lynch sketch card puzzle..

Finishing up with some pro graps art.  First up, this dodgy, cartoony, hastily drawn puzzle of Charlotte & Becky Lynch, leaders of seemingly failed, yet actually technically successful, #DivasRevolution.  I started a Sasha & Bayley puzzle too, but it’s still at pencil stage.  And now for a wrestling rant.  Joy…

So if the idea was to be booked on the same level as the guys, well… they are consistently booked like shit too.  So as much as it sucks to say it, more frequent lengthier matches and a small handful of the women on the show getting even semi-defined characters is probably the best anyone could have reasonably hoped for.  It’s a damn shame mainline WWE is almost entirely unwatchable garbage (NXT is excellent, however), but on that sliding (circling the toilet bowl?) scale, the 8-12% of extra effort they’ve put into the divas since 3/4 of NXT’s Four Horsewomen were called up more-or-less puts the women on equal footing with the men.  Isn’t it a shame that the only really viable game in town right now is basically the Springfield Tire Fire?

NXT’s Asuka/the last thing you see before you die..

It isn’t all bad though.  Whereas mainline WWE is the most shitty wrestling show on the planet right now, their developmental system NXT is the very best (at least until Lucha Underground comes back in 2016).  Longform storytelling in wrestling is such a beautiful thing, and NXT does it very, very well.  The reason Bayley & Sasha Banks at TakOver: Brooklyn was such a huge deal is because that match had been for two years in the making (even if not quite entirely intentionally)!  They do right by both their men and women down there, and it is absolutely mindblowing that the main shows can’t even deliver the slightest hint of gravitas and emotional stakes that NXT does in only an hour a week + a two hour TakeOver special ever couple months or so.

Anyway, the well-traveled and pretty much universally beloved badass Kana recently debuted on NXT under the name Asuka, so I tried to capture the wonderfully terrifying glare she gave Emma & Dana Brooke at the end of her first appearance.

And that’s all I got for now.  Sorry about my not even remotely groundbreaking wrestling rant.  And remember, everything above is available.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our NXT…

My only eBay Purchase of 2015 so Far

That’s right, most of my money has gone to COMC this year, with a little to loose retail packs of 2015 Topps and a couple repack boxes.  I’ve only bought one thing on eBay in 2015, and it wasn’t even a card.  It was this:

Raven comic book backing board sketch by Jose L. Rodrigues..

I picked up this great addition to my Raven art and sketch card collection for a whole $9.99 (shipping was free, but it was nicely protected) back in January.  As the caption states, this fantastic piece is drawn on the non-glossy side of a comic book backing board.  Looks good at the end of my sketch card binder with the rest of my larger Raven art. 🙂

Random aside: I’m considering drawing something on the other blank backing board that was in with this to protect it and sending it back to the seller, lol.  Maybe they can try to sell it too.

Haha, anyway, that’s it for this post.  Thanks for stopping by!

Take my hand, with all your might… ♫

Old New Sketch Cards

As the title states, most of these were originally drawn in 2011, and it took me until almost a week ago to finally get around to coloring (and in some cases, inking) them.  So we might as well take a looksie at them on the ol’ blogaroonie.  It never stopped me before, but be aware there be edited nekkidness at the end of this post.  So if you don’t wish to see it, stop reading this post after the sixth card.

Green Lantern Guy Gardner..

First up is the Green Lantern known as Guy Gardner.  He’s kind of a douche, but I sure did color him nice.

The Punisher..

Batting second is a slickly-shaded Punisher.  A little too slickly-shaded for how mediocre the sketch originally was, but that probably goes without saying.  I am who I am, after all.

Hawkman..

Hawkman has never been a great or terribly interesting character, but one of the very few complaints I have about the DCAU is that they turned him into a kinda creepy weirdo stalker.

Firestorm..

Batting cleanup is the surpringly well-represented in cartoon form Firestorm.  Dig that Kirby Krackle in the background.  It’s much, much easier to make with marker than pen, by the way.  My hand is grateful.

Nightwing..

Screw dat red bullshizz, Nightwing wears blue.  You’d have to pay me at least double to commission any New52 character designs.  New52 is the brown streak on the freshly cleaned underwear of DC Comics.

Vampirella..

Ah, I was coloring so well until I got to her face. *le sigh*

We have come to the end, so if you do not desire to see blotted out lady parts, scram now or forever hold your peas.

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Rogue..

Yep.  There you go.  Nekkid Rogue.  Someday the unedited version will probably make it to deviantArt or something.  Or you could buy it and have the poorly drawn lady parts all to yourself.

Same goes for everything else.  As always, on art posts like this, pretty much everything is for sale or trade.  So if you see something you wanna own, hit me up and we can work something out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next..

Starfire, Up Close and Personal

Just a quickie post before I hit the hay, because I have to get up relatively early tomorrow to see the next airing of Wrestle Kingdom 9 that I didn’t make it over in time to see tonight (I ate almost a whole pizza and inked & colored a few more old sketch cards instead).  So I present you one of the last four sketch cards I did in the waning days of 2014.

Dat detail tho..

As the title indicates, this is indeed Starfire of the Teen Titans.  She is one of my go-to sketch card characters, because quite frankly, coloring white people is kinda tedious and boring.  I just like coloring a lot more in general when I can use vibrant, interesting colors.  Anyway, I felt like I was putting entirely too much effort into these cards while I was doing them, since I didn’t put near as much effort into the earlier stages, but I don’t hate how things turned out.  Anything but perfect, but a fairly spirited effort, I’d say.

Pretty much all the cards I do are available, so if you should ever happen to like anything I do enough to want to own it, hit me up and we can work something out!

That’s all I’ve got for now.  Thanks for stopping by.

Until our next…

What the Future Holds…

I guess I better get to the 2015 round of resolutions I cannot possibly keep while we’re still in the afterglow of a new year’s dawning.

Collection Goals

15 trades- I think I got close enough to my goal of a dozen last year not be entirely disappointed in myself, so let’s up the ante.  I already have two that are slowly coming together, one with longtime frequent trading partner Shot Not Taken and another with Baseball Card Breakdown.  I’ve also pulled out some odds & ends for a few other bloggers, and I’ll start sending out emails to the lucky(?) perspective trading partners soon.  I also reserve the right to add the two I got in just under the gun in 2014 if they get me over the hump at the end of the year, since their actual arrivals did and/or will take place in 2015. 😛

Finish the following Single Page Sensations- I am over halfway done on almost all of the following, so I’d like to finish as many as possible.

Cubs: Albert Almora (5/9), Javier Baez (8/9), Kris Bryant (7/9), Tyler Colvin (6/9), Ron Santo (6/9)

Other Baseball: Dick Allen (6/9), Roberto Alomar (7/9), Albert Bell (7/9), Carlos Santana (6/9)

Bears: Charles Tillman (6/9)

Basketball: Luol Deng (7/9)

Wrestling: Victoria/Tara (7/9)

BenchWarmer: BenchWarmer model (none over 3/9)

Baseball Sets: 2011 Topps Legend Variations (6/9), 2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary Legend Variations (8/9), 2012 Topps Museum Collection “Canvas Collection” Baseball (8/9), 2014 Topps Museum Collection “Canvas Collection” Baseball (6/9 if I keep Strasburg)

Football Sets: 2013 Topps Museum Collection “Canvas Collection” Football (8/9)

Add 2 new licensed and 5 new personal Raven sketch cards- The former are crazy expensive for a B-list team character and there just aren’t a whole lot of either to go around.  I think these are pretty reasonable numbers to strive for though.

Finish both the licensed and PSC DC Comics miscellaneous Single Page Sensations- I am starting the year at 4/9 licensed and 3/9 PSC.

Complete any other sketch card Single Page Sensation- Lots to choose from, but I’m over halfway done on but a very few.

Blog Goals

Write 80 new posts- Again, we’ll up the ante a juuuust a smidge from 2014.  I did a good job of posting with a fair degree of regularity when I was actually here and posting in the year gone by, so I think I can average a little better than 1.5 posts per week in the year to come.  I’m not going to make any requirements on the number of non #collect-focused things this time though.  I feel that was a small contributor in falling off the map so early last year.  I’m stupid (not true, but I am very, very lazy), so I’m going to keep it simple.

Art Goals

Complete 50 new sketch cards- I managed 38/50 last year (1 side of that weird Marvel two card puzzle was completed).  That was close enough to not feel too much shame, especially in light of how much I managed to draw in total.  Still, this isn’t close enough to up the ante, so I will give the same number a good go again in 2015.  Paul Molitor (repurposed) and Boromir of Gondor (artist tile) are the first two in the queue.

100 total new works- I’m pretty sure I coasted past this number last year, and if you consider the multiple pictures on single pages as individual works, then I did even better.  Everything was unofficial, however.

Finish 30 old sketch cards- I barely finished any old cards in 2014, and I don’t feel like I did a very good job on what I did do, so I’m making this a point of emphasis in the new year.  I’m off to a good start, having already finished seven oldies on January 2nd (also colored most of two others).  I’m also happy to report my coloring seems to be back to nearly as strong as it was at the height of my powers a couple years ago.

You can keep track of my 2015 art progress HERE.

Writing Goals

Finish a first draft of any novel idea- I barely got anywhere on anything last year, and while I’d like to say a more stable computer situation would have helped, I’m not so sure…  There can be no excuses this year though.  I just bought the one I’m currently writing from a month ago, and I hope to have a laptop, and the additional mobility that entails, to go with it by spring.

Here is your reward for sticking around to the bitter end: Please enjoy my best pull of 2014, a Meryl Davis autograph! ♥

Aaaand that’s all for this post I guess.  There are plenty of other things I’d like to accomplish in 2015, but these are the most pressing and/or well-defined.  A bit simpler than last year, and I’m sure I’ve probably broken a couple resolutions already, but thanks for stopping by!

Until our next…

More Sketch Cards by Yours Truly

New day, new batch of art.

Rogue..

This is bound for my pal Twitter pal Celina.  Drew it up ages ago but just finally got her colored a few days ago.

Raven 1..

This was the only one of the three Ravens I liked before I colored them, but I’m pretty lukewarm on it now.

Raven 2..

I don’t even know what the hell I was trying to do on this one, but I actually liked it a little better after coloring.  Still not a strong effort though…

Raven 3..

I don’t even… I can’t stand most of my comic book/cartoon/anime-style stuff.  Let’s just get this post over with only other one of the five besides the Rogue that doesn’t really make me cringe.

Blink..

Finally, mercifully, here’s another Blink that turned out decent.  Multiple Blinks in a short period happened because I didn’t have a tan marker to help out with more regular human skintones at the time I first sketched them all out.

That’s all for this post.  I’ll try to do better next time.  Thank you for stopping by nonetheless.

Until our next…

New-ish Sketch Cards Pickups

Picked these up towards the end of last year.  Scanned ’em the day after Christmas.  Posting them now.

DC Women of Legend Raven..

The rare Raven from a licensed set..  This was by far the least expensive of my quartet of licensed set Ravens, at a hair under $15 with free shipping.  None of the others were under $20.  Hopefully with regular sets coming out again, the price of DC sketch cards starts dropping off so I can get more Ravens in the $10-15 range.  That would be fantastic.

Raven by CK Russell..

This outstanding PSC comes from via eBay from my frequently moving Canadian friend Cara.  She is the main reason I got into sketch cards in the first place, both as an artist and a collector.

Dawnstar..

This is also by Cara, my first Dawnstar sketch card.  This is the main reason I picked up the lot of three Legion of Superheroes sketches.  Here are the other two:

Apparition..

Cosmic Boy..

I will (reluctantly) consider sale or trade offers if anyone wishes to make Apparition or Cosmic Boy a part of their collections.  Hit me up.  Also, go follow Cara on Twitter & see about a commission or something, eh?

And that’s all I got for now.  Thank you for stopping by!

Until our next…