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…

From Conception to Completion

Over the past week or so, I’ve been plugging away at this sketch of New Zealand-based future wrestling legend Evie.  A short while ago I finally, mercifully finished.  Not that I can actually explain how I shade with so much detail (pretty much completely self-taught), but I grabbed progress pics after each session.  Just thought it might be fun to show it in various stage of completeness here on the ol’ blog.  So here now is Evie, in five excruciatingly long steps.

Step One: Just a semi-rough outline with minimal detailing..

Step Two: The first section of shading.  Gotta start at the top and left because I’m right-handed & don’t use a glove or anything, so it’ll get messy if I don’t..

Step Three: More shading.  Top to bottom, because the lower half is about to get hella complicated..

Step Four: Roughing out the folds in the fabric.  So many folds.  So, sooooo many folds..

Step 5: Tightened the folds, finished shading dress, tightened up other lines, touched up shading in places, and voila… Done!

And there you have it!  A complete sketch of one of the coolest and most badass wrestlers in the business, in classy mode, I guess you’d say.

That’s all for this post.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next…

One of those Nights…

It’s a cold, lonely night

And I’m stuck in the past again

Lost in memories

Of what I thought could have been

Can’t stop replaying

All the things I should have said to you

Everything I felt back then

You know it all still holds true

♫

It never was

I know it never will be

No matter what I say

No matter what I wanna see

But I still lose all my senses

Rehashing our brief passing

And all the times you smiled at me

Make my lonely heart

Still want to believe

♫

And I guess life goes on

Even when you can’t let the past go

No amount of pain

Can halt time’s unending flow

I cling to fading shadows

In the dying light

Of another sleepless night

♫

I know I never had a chance

But I’m sorry I never tried

And when I’m at my weakest

It kills me deep inside

I keep chasing something

I know was never there

But when I’m missing you

The signs are everywhere

♫

And I guess life goes on

Even when you can’t let the past go

No amount of pain

Can halt time’s unending flow

I cling to fading shadows

In the dying light

of another sleepless night

♫

And I guess life goes on

Even when you can’t let the past go

No amount of pain

Can halt time’s unending flow

I cling to fading shadows

In the dying light

of another sleepless night

♫

Just another damn sleepless night…

I Drew Stuff Today

Wasn't much else to do today, so I did this.

Until our next…

Quick Hits

Just have a few of notes to mention tonight, since I’m not up for the 3-5 hours it’ll take to do a post for my first trade Wicked Ortega (It was big!  I don’t think the 9 or so scans I did was more than 40% of the package), which is the only other thing I have handy to talk about at the moment, since my Allen Iverson post is now moot (and I couldn’t be happier!).

I finally got around to doing a bunch of scans of eBay stuff, pack breakage, my second trade with Wicked Ortega, the clunkers and more from Roll out the Barrel, a few other random cards, a couple sketch cards I finally finished, and some quickie sketches from one of my sketchbooks.  And then I forgot to bring them back to my place… Yeah, I suck. -.-;

Anyway, you’ve got that stuff to look forward to when I do finally get all that good stuff over here.  And I’ve got a box of Fantastic Four Archives I picked up on Blowout Cards over the weekend to look forward to arriving near Christmas.  Here’s hoping for a really cool sketch card.

Speaking of sketch cards, does anyone know where I can get some binders on the really really cheap?  I need one for my sketch card and Benchwarmers collections, and probably ones for other stuff eventually.  My ginormo 2005 Bowman Heritage redemption binder won’t hold my random insert/WBC collections and player collections forever.

Provided I pick up some more cases, cards will be going out, starting this weekend, to the following peeps: Nachos Grande, Shot Not Taken, Roll out the Barrel, Night Owl, and The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame, and possibly another 3-5 more to be named later.  It’s gonna be a busy month, or what qualifies as such for me.  Fortunately, there are no $7+ packages here, so I won’t break myself with all this.

Hmm… I thought that was it, but since I just now finished a couple more sketch cards, I thought I’d mention them.  Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn and Batman are now done.  I will scan them someday.  They’ll be available for sale or trade or something maybe.  The blog stars of AnotherMaria and Ms. Latina I’m coloring as I type this very paragraph won’t though.  Once I finish it, I’m going to send it off to each of them to sign.  It will be my first TTM auto. ♥ 😀

Goodnight, and apologies for such a crappy, halfhearted post.  Maybe the next one will be better.

Maybe.

You’re thinking of tacos…