What have you seen today?

"Nothing good."

Ferris Bueller's Day off is one of my favorite movies. Not because of Ferris, I can't identify with him other than the fact that I had a computer before I had a car. I identify with Cameron. I worry too much. I'm too grouchy for my own good. I overthink things. I occasionally get to hang out with cool people doing cool things and I'm just lucky to be there. Heck, I'm a Detroit Red Wings fan pretty much because Cameron wore a Gordie Howe jersey in that movie.

Three scenes define that movie for me. "Ferris Bueller, you're my hero" is one of my favorite lines of all time. The baseball scenes are wonderful simply because the Cubs are playing the Braves. The best scene is the one in the museum. Ever since the first time I saw this scene it grabbed me by the throat and shook me to the core. While normal people are off snogging, Cameron and I are getting lost in a painting. Their animalistic hormonal jollies will never match the bliss of losing oneself in a masterpiece. Cameron in a Seurat. Me in a Finster. Or Dali. Or Miro.

I watched the film last night and decided to paint something for myself to take a break from the stuff I'm painting for other people. So I painted Cameron. Losing himself in that little girl's face in Seurat's painting. I'm happy with how it came out.

This was painted on a canvasy 9x12" paper for acrylic paints. Six colors were used: Black, white, blue, brown, suede and fuchsia. It was originally going to be a quick half-hour painting but took about two. A goodly amount of vodka aided the creative process. Here's the reference photo I used.

And the scene it came from.


Don't really have anything more to say, there's not much I can do to tie this into baseball, which is what this blog is supposedly about. Well, nothing other than HEEEEEEEEEY BATTER BATTER BATTER SAWIIIIIIIING BATTER HECANTHITHECANTHITHECANTHIT SAWIIING BATTER. So relax and enjoy the arts. I'm going to the Braves' open house tomorrow so maybe you'll get some good pics by Sunday.

Sketch Card #18 - Mascot Edition

Ok, time for more sketch cards. I'd like to get into 2012 before Opening day (the real one, not the thing going on in Japan) at least. PROBLEM: I still need to get more packages out and to do so I need to draw more sketch cards and right now I don't feel like drawing anything so thing are getting backed up in here so I'm procrastinating by actually writing a post for my now completely-off-the-rails blog. Must be something about February and March. As I recall the blog went off the rails at this time last year too. I'm hitting the Braves Open House this weekend so maybe that'll snap me out of my baseball doldrums.

Ok, so onto the sketch card. One thing I like doing now that I'm all artistic and sh!t is experimenting with stuff I haven't done before. Sometimes it works out well, like this future sketch card post I did for Long Fly Ball to Because. Sometimes it's an abject disaster like when I tried using oil pastels for the first time. Note that both pieces have a black background. I'm somewhat obsessed with black right now for some reason. I've switched from graphite to charcoal for quick sketches recently. I really like the deep black color of the charcoal and it forces me to be very decisive where I put a line. With graphite (that's pencils for the non-pretentious) I get all fiddly and uncertain and I erase things 27 times and try to make things perfect and get frustrated when it isn't. Charcoal lines? You draw it and it's there. Ain't no getting rid of it. You screw it up, you work around it.

Sometimes it's a trainwreck,

Sometimes it turns out pretty ok.

Either way I can knock out a quick drawing or sketch without having to sweep away a pile of eraser crumbs.

So now that I've established that I am obsessed with the color black (and Pinkie Pie, but you already knew that) and like to experiment we can discuss today's sketch card. This nightmare version of the '60's style Mr. Met that heads up this post.

Dem eyes just burn away your soul, don't they? So basically what happened is between the last Sharpie Sketch card and this one I finally got brave enough to start painting with acrylics. Like everything else I've ever done while learning art, I didn't just check out a nice "how to paint with acrylics" book from the library and do a nice simple painting of a vase or some strawberries or something, I have to do something weird like paint ponies into baseball cards and spraypaint decoy cards black to use as a canvas. Important safety tip: Painting on glossy cards with acrylic is a gigantic pain in the butt. The paint slides around and doesn't cover properly and you have to use a ton of coats to make it look even kinda right. So what happened when I spraypainted a bunch of decoy cards black so I could paint on them?

That's right, I used glossy paint.

I have since bought a can of flat black spraypaint for spritzing decoy cards. I also bought the crappy cheap paint so I have to use 7 coats just to make the card grayish but every failure is a learning experience and at this rate I'll be Albert Einsten by the end of the year.

Ok, so onto this sketch card right here. This was painted for Jacobmrly. I have a second project in mind for him but I'm having trouble getting it down onto paper. A little fear combined with a lot of lazy. Just need to do it. Digressing again. So, Mr. Marley has a habit of sending me Chippers unannounced so I wanted to repay the Met fan with something nice.  He got this. Seeing as how this was my third painting since I started back up again all I can see is where I screwed up. Lines are really uneven. Paint sliding everywhere on the glossy surface. The stitches on Mr. Met's head look like a giant flesh wound. There's a definite creepiness in the face that was actually a lot worse before I repainted it almost completely. Not happy with the bat. The body is kinda cartoonish, but I actually kinda like how that turned out. In other words I see this work as a hot mess.

So, I think it's a disaster. What does Jacobmrly, the guy who actually received the card, think about it? Well, it's now on his Mets binder and has become the header and favicon of his new blog.

I really need to relax, quit being so critical and just draw.

My take on the whole CBS thing

If you haven't seen the CBS piece on card collecting, well, honestly you're really better off.
Don't even know why I was compelled to waste time making this when I've got a million better things to be doing but this got in my head and nagged at me until I let it out.

not original
all i did was add text
google trollface
goin to bed now

For all the Dodger fans

I hate to burst your bubble but triple double trouble is coming to your town and he's gonna make rubble



(I wish the Braves' owner was cool)

metsbluh

Two more packages inna mail. I have three or four almost ready to go. Mostly waiting on sketch cards at this point.

Sean L.
Edgar G.
Scott C.
James R.
Andruw K.
Max M.
Matt F.
Tom O.
Paul B.
Jeremy S.
Jeff C.
Rod R.
Paul E.
Marck B.
Captain C.
The D.

I think if I can get the sketches done and get some packages out the door I'll allow myself to cut it out with the Mets a little early. You don't really wanna see more Mets do ya?

I don't care what anyone says, I like the burlap. Reminds me of canvas. which I should be painting on right now but I'm lazy and sleepy. Maybe tomorrow.

RIP Bert Randolph Sugar

IF I ever get to the point where I'm completely fed up with cards and I throw all of 'em but 100 into a chipper shredder (pun intended) this autograph card of Bert Sugar will make the cut and avoid becoming compost. He's best known for his boxing writing but I'll remember him for his Dover Baseball Card books that first introduced me to pre-war vintage.

RIP Bert. 

Previous posts on Bert.

Been lazy lately

Well it was my week off. Actually I've been semi-productive by putting together some packages, organizing some junk and getting sketch cards done. I should really post something though so you all don't think I've turned into a Twitter-bot. Here's a Met.

I'll try to get something real posted tonight, assuming I don't get caught up in painting again.

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #15 Kid Stuff

Ok, time to get back to this series. Skipping about due to my Mets pledge. Also because I can't manage to get #15 written and I'm kinda scared to post #16 now, but that's beside the point. Here's another card from the last Vintage show because I really need to get these all posted before the next Vintage show hits town. And it's a Met! that I paid too much for, but oh well!

Awwwww, Tom Seaver looks ADORABLE. The kid's kinda skeevy looking though. Looks like he's up to somethin'.

I keed, I keed. I'm sure Lil' Tom Seaver was perfectly wholesome. That little league field looks like it's in the middle of a refugee camp, but I might just be used to the professional grade East Cobb fields. Rich folks are CRAZY 'bout their baseball 'round here. It may not be immediately obvious from the wacky font and little yellow stars, but this card is from the 1972 Topps set. 1972 Topps chock full of wacky subsets padding out the 787 card set including the In Action cards, Award Trophy cards, Traded cards and these kid pics. All these subsets are making it difficult to work on this set as all the super-duperstars in the checklist have twice as many cards to chase. If not three or four times. Tom has FIVE cards to chase in this set, the base, In Action, two league leaders cards and this Boyhood photo card here. That's a lotta Seaver. Tom Terrific cards are expensive too. He's like the Met version of Mantle. I overpaid for this one to the tune of a fiver, but it was worth it to plug another hole in my '72 set.

The backs have a nice little writeup on Tom's amateur career. Little things like this are why 1972 Topps is the best set of the '70s. Also the LSD-inspired border design, but I digress. Have I mentioned that Tom really should have been a Brave? I have? Imma gripe again. William Eckert is a Fink. Tom was still one of those larger than like figures when I was growing up. I'm still kind of miffed that the Big Red Machine decided to break down as soon as Tom got traded over there. I relished pulling those Seaver cards out of '83 Topps, Donruss and Fleer even though as a Braves fan the rest of the Reds could go jump in a lake. I even enjoyed pulling his cards when he was slumming with the Sox. I don't think I managed to get my hands on a Seaver card from his first stint with the Mets until I was in my 30s, but it was worth the wait. Still got two more to track down from the '72 set though - oy vey!

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

Weis does this keep happening to me

Scott and Marck's packages are in the mail! That just leaves...

Sean L.
Edgar G.
Scott C.
James R.
Andruw K.
Max M.
Matt F.
Tom O.
Paul B.
Jeremy S.
Jeff C.
Rod R.
Paul E.
Marck B.
Captain C.
The D.

The plan is to get three sketch cards done this afternoon so I can get another batch of packages out tomorrow. Until that happens though.... well, you know the drill:

At least the airbrushed cap softened the blow a bit on this one.

Marketing Mets

In honor of the Sport and Gaming Collectible Industry Summit that all the cool kids are discussing on Twitter, I dug up some old school cards from way back when the industry gave a crap about marketing to kids. Here's some cards given away with...

chocolate

breakfast cereal

granola bars

fake cheese squares

All junk food items that kids tend to like. Here's some more giveaways in products geared towards kids:

ice cream

cheese sticks

snack cakes

slurpees

fast food

pizza

meat snacks

more snack cakes

bland yellow mustard

even more snack cakes

Man, that's a lotta junk food. Might be a good thing cards aren't being included in that anymore. The last time I remember seeing cards in any product was when Sunkist included a card in a bag of oranges that promptly bent the thing all to hell. So now that the Industry is trying to figure out how to get the kids who got hooked on cards through some of these giveaways to spend more money on cards as an adult, I wonder what they have in mind to hook those guys' kids? Maybe they can sneak baseball cards into packs of Pokemon and Squinkies...

Happy Hangover Day!!!

I know for a fact you bastards were all boozin it up all night even if the closest you've ever been to being Irish is eating a Reuben sandwich. You feel like crap now dontcha? Hair of the Dog just bit ya in the ass, didn't it? Well watch this bit of stupidity, it might make you feel better.




At the very least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you're not stupid enough to video yourself while smashed to the gills in an attempt to honor your ancestors and put it on the internet.

Oh and here's an obligatory Mets card since there wasn't one in the video:

And here's a pony JUST BECAUSE

Gotta post something green today I guess

 posing Mets is easier atfer youve drunken 17 green beers

Erin go BLAAUUUUGH

Tiiiiiiin ROOF

Rusty.

Paul's package is innamail. Gettin' at least three more out by Saturday or I'm not watching the new Pony episode. EVER

Sean L.
Edgar G.
Scott C.
James R.
Andruw K.
Max M.
Matt F.
Tom O.
Paul B.
Jeremy S.
Jeff C.
Rod R.
Paul E.
Marck B.
Captain C.
The D.
P. Go

Mailing Queue

Just a brief reminder to myself of what I've sent and what need to get out of my house. You can safely ignore this post unless you've been waiting for a package from me for three years.

6/14/12 - Tom, Eric, Bill, Jeremy and Bad Wax Box

5/??/12 mailed something, but I forgot to notate it

5/10/12 - Nathan, Paul and Richard mailed

5/01/12 - Jon and Sarah mailed

4/02/12 - David and James mailed

3/26/12 - Jeff and Sam mailed

3/20/12 - Scott and Marck mailed

3/15/12 - Paul mailed

3/09/12 - Slangon, Edgar and Matty Heartbreak mailed

Need to get it together:

Andruw K. - need sketch
Max M. - need sketch
Tom O. - cards, has enough sketches
Rod R. - need sketch &cards
Captain C. - need sketch

gcrl - sketch & cards
Mark A. - sketch
James A. - sketch
Maine Mariner - sketch
Eric N. - need sketch
Sarah - Painting
Gritz - sketch & cards
Matt F. - Sketch

Foul Ball

Lookie what I found at the dollar store...

I read the introduction (28 pages!) and that pre-chapter by itself is more interesting than a lot of other books I've read. If anyone wants a copy and can't find it at your local Dollar Tree let me know and I'll see if I can pick you up a copy. Or just go to Jim's website and get your own personalized copy.

Again, Mehts

If I'm lucky, I'll have Paul's package in the mail by the time this posts. If not, it'll go out in the mail with a couple other packages tomorrow. If I'm truly unfortunate, I'll fall asleep on my commute today and get smashed to oblivion on the interstate. I'm going to be heavily leaning on coffee today, which truth be told is a major factor on why I didn't get any sleep last night. Oh yah. Mets.

Get comfortable folks, it's gonna be a while before we move out of Flushing.

Mailday from Slangon

I sent his cards so I can open his package. Besides, where do you think all these Mets are coming from?



And if you're too damn lazy to watch the video here's the goods:

(seriously, what the hell is that cutie mark supposed to be???)

Mo Metsie

Nothin got mailed, nothin got packaged, but I have all the cards together for Scott, Marck and Captain and a sketch card finished for Paul. It's time to pay the price for sleeping in on Saturday though...

AAAARGH.

This is a pain that shall linger.

More Mets

Slangon, Edgar and Matty Heartbreak's packages are in the mail! That just leaves...

Sean L.
Edgar G.
Scott C.
James R.
Andruw K.
Max M.
Matt F.
Tom O.
Paul B.
Jeremy S.
Jeff C.
Rod R.
Paul E.
Marck B.
Captain C.
The D.
P. Go

oh gawd don't make me do this......

OW. MY SOUL. 

the pain....

Sketch Card #17 - Pony'd

I'm over 3 months behind on the sketch cards and I'm drawing like a fiend right now so I should probably get a postin'. A major theme in my pony-drawing portfolio is turning unsuspecting hapless schmoes into ponies again their will.

The Collective Troll got ponified back in September. I'm not sure at the moment but if he wasn't the first to get transmogrified by me into a man-horse he was dang close. Why would I do such a nefarious thing? I just think the "X is now pony. What do?" meme is friggin' hilarious. Seriously, I'm laughing at it right now and it's making it hard to tpye.  Marck isn't the only Mark to become Pony.

Mark over at Stats on the Back also got a blast from the Pony Ray.  I basically did a piss take on his blog header (an actual 1973 Topps cartoon) and turned him into a bubble blowing workhorse. Poor guy has a foal to feed and I've gone and made him a pony.  Oh well, gotta expect disaster to hit when you're a Met fan. As usual, I did a little preliminary sketch to try to figure things out:

Glasses on ponies ain't easy. Their eyes are half of their dang head which makes things awkward. After doing this, I did it again on the actual card and ended up erasing  way too much. This is important later. For some reason I'm obsessed with doing Sharpie Art on these glossy decoy cards people send me but I never quite like how it comes out. I'm not comfortable with my lines yet, I guess. Here's the black and white version:

Lettering is shaky as usual, I smudged up the bubble and the Sharpie decided it didn't want to cooperate on the bottom border and I had to dig up the Marks-a-Lot to get the bkack I wanted but the pony turned out pretty ok in my opinion. Even the glasses! I decided I wanted to color it with the '73 back ink colors but I wasn't entirely sure what color to use. After rummaging through my kids' marker box I found some candidates and did a test on a security decoy card:

I ended up using the color on the top right. The only problem is the color didn't really want to go down evenly so I ended up doing a couple of passes to try to smooth it out. Even then, drops of color globbed together whenever I picked up the marker so I tried to push them towards a border. This is why there's a dark spot at the tip of the hoof. Even worse, the parts where I erased had enough of the gloss removed so the ink soaked in through to the paper underneath when I took a second pass. This is why Pony Mark looks like he has acne on his chin. I couldn't figure out what the heck to put on the back so I found an old sports page in the basement and got some Mod Podge and...

Stats on the back, naturally. The Mets even won! That should take the sting of abruptly switching species away for a bit. (who am I kidding, everyone wants to be a pony) Oh, and Tom, it was about 11 hours before I posted a Met Pony, so the Under is a winner. What's the over/under of when someone posts the date of this box score?

Desperate times call for desperate measures

On my desk is about a dozen random piles of stuff that I need to package and mail out. There's also a half dozen sketch cards/various art pieces that need to be completed and sent and another half dozen ideas in my head that need to get crystallized onto paper. By my accounting, these people are waiting for stuff from me:



Sean L.
Edgar G.
Scott C.
James R.
Andruw K.
Max M.
Matt F.
Tom O.
Paul B.
Jeremy S.
Jeff C.
Rod R.
Paul E.
Marck B.
Brian Rozah- Rosaghy Rzzaggah Captain Canuck

The Dimwit
Phungo


There's probably some more if I double check my e-mail. I gotta get offa my ass and outta my funk and get shit done. Therefore I decree:

UNTIL I GET ALL THESE PACKAGES COMPLETED AND MAILED I SHALL POST NOTHING BUT METS ON THIS BLOG. 

I know, it's a terrible thing, but it has to be done.