Calling all movie buffs

I screwed around too much tonight and ran out of time to do a proper post for the blog. It wasn't a complete waste though, I got a package together and scanned some stuff for a future post and drew some ponies. While doing my nightly sketching I recreated a famous scene from a film. Can anyone name the film this came from?

Get it right and maybe I'll sketch something for ya.

Pack o' Stickahs

This year I've become one of those 'troublemaker' collectors who is not buying new product. I'm not specifically boycotting anything, I'm just not buying new wax. It's getting difficult, especially now that Heritage is out. I can already tell right now that Allen & Ginter is going to break me. And oh crap... Gypsy Queen is going to be out soon too. I'm boned.

I do have one last trick up my sleeve. In addition to some unopened wax I stashed late last year in case of card emergency I have one outlet for my 2012 card cravings. 2012 Topps Stickers. Some of you are likely protesting right now. "How can you say you're not buying 2012 product if you're buying packs of stickers?" Here's my reasoning on this:

1) I have no earthly idea where or how I would ever find it but in 2009 or 2010 when Panini was back in the game with sticker albums I made an offhand comment on someone's blog that if Topps were to do another baseball sticker album I'd forsake the flagship and just collect that exclusively. Well they did, and I feel somewhat obligated to fulfill my promise even if I can't find the original comment.

2) They're not trading cards, they're stickers. Fundamentally different product. Even when Fleer put out their full sized sticker cards back in the '80's I always saw stickers as a separate entity than cards. Like baseball coins or rub-offs or tattoos. They're in that nebulous category of "worthless kid stuff" in a subset of "oddball ephemera" and that's exactly what I need in my life right now.

3) They ain't but a buck a pack. And collectors gonna collect. Don't force me to buy pony blind bags.

I am also rationing them out and only allowing myself to open a pack every time I complete a painting. So far I've opened three packs. I have 4 other paintings in various stages of completion and a handful of sketch cards to work on so I'll probably have to make a Target run soon for more packs. Here's the second pack I opened, the first one is in a video I haven't posted on YouTube yet.

Brandon Phillips just got a ginormous contract from the Reds. Brandon is one of those players I really like despite playing on a Braves rival so I'm happy for him, but between him and Votto the Reds' payroll has about a buck and a half left over for their entire rotation.

Dexter is another damn good player. Wanna know who is going to be the next breakout star? Read the AJC Braves blog and watch to see which player the genetic defectives in the peanut gallery are screaming that the Braves need to trade for right this instant this year. Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dexter Fowler. These are all players from past years that the bloggers obsessed over. I'd tell you who the current fixation is on that board but the trolls and psychopaths have so thoroughly poisoned the blog that it's far less stressful to just hit myself in the knee with a hammer repeatedly rather than read that mess.

I'm still extremely bitter that I can watch pretty much every Cubs game on my bare bones cable package while I get maybe 35 Braves games on Peachtree TV. I can't even give Major League Baseball my money for their MLB.TV package because of stupid blackout rules. I'm really beginning to question why I care about baseball at all.

"We're only making plans for Nyjer..."

"WoooOOOOoooh"

Bad news: my first duplicate sticker in 2012.
Good news: the other one was torn out of the sticker album and was pretty much trashed when I tried to separate it from Ryan Zimmerman's sticker.

Longoria's home run last September pretty much talked me off the ledge after the Braves' flop. I'm still bummed they didn't go further in the postseason.

My first mascot from the set. Wait... No way. It can't be.

Oh God, it is.

First Pony pulled in 2012. Seriously folks, I just can't get away from them anymore. I've given up even trying and have simply accepted my fate.

Finishing up with a couple of non-foil logo cards. Some are not happy with this development, but I like the simplicity. Plus: Rainbow fishy logo.

ADDED VALUE:

So one thing I do as an aspiring Arteeest is work on my gesture sketching. Basically I look at a subject and try to sketch their pose as quickly and as accurately as possible. Normally I sketch nekkid people over on this site (NSFW if you click the 'get drawing' button) but after I opened this pack up I decided to sketch out the poses on these cards instead. Here's the result.

I really like sketching with charcoal pencil. I love the dark lines and it forces me to really think about what I'm doing because once I draw with charcoal, there's no going back. The faces all ended up dreadful, but I was more concerned with the poses. I am disappointed that I'm still drawing Salad Fingers when I do hands though.

These two turned out pretty ok although I am not sure how with a Cub and a Brewer on the same page the paper doesn't just burst into flames.

As you can see I'm getting sloppier and sloppier. There wasn't really enough room for both players on this page. While Evan may lamelt the loss of his left arm, I'm sure he's glad I also didn't bother to draw Mike's bat.

And if you didn't see this coming a mile away, you really haven't been paying attention.

Six Months Later

So on September 1st I decided to draw something every day. Somehow I've managed to keep it up. Here's the first sketch I did that day, Casey Stengel. Here's what I drew last night instead of all those sketch cards I owe people.

Looking forward to seeing what I draw this September 1st.

I am completely incapable of writing about baseball cards right now

Salvador Dali and Man Ray are shocked and dismayed to hear this news.

Don't worry, this happens a couple times a year. I wish it wasn't happening when I have so much to do, but them's the breaks. Maybe I'll get my mojo back after the Fluttershy episode this weekend.

Congrats Barry

I remember Barry Larkin fondly. Mainly because my Braves walloped him in the playoffs in his MVP year on their way to a Championship. The only one we'll ever get. Now he's in the Hall of Fame and I can show off this card which is relevant tonight and tonight only.

Also congrats to Jack Morris who hit inevitable status today with 68%. He might not go in next year (next year's ballot is gonna be CARAAAAAYZEEEE!!!!) but you can't get 68% of the vote and not get in eventually. The Vets committee will be cleaning up a LOT of the BBWAA's messes in the next 20 years so rest easy, Jack.

I have resolved not to kvetch about the Hall of Fame Voting this year, so I'd like to go the opposite route and post a link to the greatest Hall of Fame Ballot "this is who I voted for, chumps" circlejerk article of all time. Words simply cannot describe the sheer beauty of this piece, even though it is in fact completely made up of words itself. The powerful emotions this scribe stirred in my heart compelled me to commit a shocking act of copyright infringement and quote for you this tenderly sweet passage about Dale Murphy's candidacy.

My favorite team growing up in the 1920s was the Kentucky Bourbons, and no player better exemplifies the spirit of the Bourbons than ol’ DALE MURPHY. Murphy loved his bourbon, and his crack. Always willing to share, always a great teammate, and hardly ever getting hit by a pitch. It’s too bad he was murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald. I don’t know who I’m talking about anymore, but when I hear Dale Murphy, I think of a walrus being eaten by a wolf, on the roof of the Baseball Hall of Fame. So I can’t deny a vote to this one. Eight down, one more makes ten, I am on a roll. And also eating a roll, because I’m hungry.

Never before has the true Dale Murphy been adequately described in print. Not like this. These kind words inspired me to take pencil in hand and draw this man's vision to the best of my ability.

Don't feel bad for the walrus, he's going up to Heaven to eat oysters with Jesus

I raise a glass of Kentucky Bourbon to you, oh Strawman Sportswriter. As well as a crack pipe to ol' Murph. The Veteran's Committee will put you in eventually.

Ok, let's try this again. The best card I got in 2011

This was supposed to be posted last night - and it was - but due to a scheduling screwup it posted with a date of late December so let's try this again with some extra content.

This one came from Jeremy over at No One's Going to Read this Blog. This card probably impacted the eventual course of my life more than anything else last year other than actual important things like family and work and such. Emothions went a little haywire over this card, which I received in the middle of my 'not posting' period early last year. I went from amazed by the card, to impressed by the talent to create it, to jealous of that talent, to depressed because I couldn't do something like this, to defiant against the idea that I couldn't do something like this, to inspired to draw Al Hrabosky, then some doodles, then Woody Allen and Larry David looking at badly drawn naked women (don't ask) then... ponies. Not sure what (if anything) I traded for this, but Jeremy is on the sketch card list, just as soon as I figure out something to draw that comes close to this.


Jeremy saw the post and commented. In it he said " I still can't draw Larry David and I've spent hours trying to get him right." Well Jeremy, don't feel bad, I can't draw him either! Since it was mentioned (I told you not to ask) I scanned my first ever sketch page drawn in the wee hours of the morning after having imbibed in several brewed beverages. Basically I was wasting some time in the interwebs and found some interesting pictures on (NSFW!) ffffound! (I just told you there were pictures of naked girls on that site so be careful clicking it!) and decided it would be neat to try to draw copies of a few of them. This was sometime after the Al Hrabosky sketch card but before I started watching ponies so Juney-Julyish I guess. I MSPainted some bikinis on the girls so now it's no worse than some of the stuff you'll see on some of the more disreputable blogs out there. Look if you dare.

I drew this stuff in this order: Creepy Woody Allen, nekkid girl on the right, topless girl on the left, Horrified Larry David. Now what can we learn from this picture?

1. I can't draw hands for crap
2. I love pretty girls and cranky Jewish comedians
3. Six months ago I had have no idea what I was am doing
4. I cannot draw hands
5. I like drawing men's faces and girl's bodies
6. This makes me a sexist pig and Dinged Corners, A Cardboard Problem, Things are Funner Here and McCann Can Triple probably just totally stopped following me and I don't blame them 
7. SALAD FINGERS!
8. I don't know what the hell happened to those shoulders
9. JESUS CRHIST DEM HANDS

Since this picture I've drawn a hell of a lot more ponies than girls and gotten marginally better at both. Ponies are way easier to draw than girls. Not as lumpy for one thing. I don't feel creepy drawing cartoons either, even though the big joke right now is that Bronies are a bunch of gay autistic loser rule 34 loving manchildren*. Which is just ridiculous, because EVERYONE on the internet is a bunch of gay autistic loser rule 34  loving manchildren. It's no big thing. But wait... HERE COMES THE IRONY. Now that I inexplicably feel kinda squicky about drawing nekkid wimmen (which probably is the sole reason about 90% of artists even get in to this business) my wife has actually found a local museum with a program where artists can come and sketch live models. Live nude models. Live nude female models. Live nude female models what are not my wife. And my wife - specifically the one I'm married to right now - suggested I go to this. She's practically encouraging it. God as my witness I have no idea what to do. I think I'mma go draw Larry David as a pony.

*yes, I've seen the New York Times thing over 9000 times.

Daily Sketch

I discovered Reddit's Sketch Daily subreddit last night and decided to join in the fun. I won't be subjecting you to this every day and I promise I'll post some actual un-ponified baseball cards around here eventually but I figured you all would appreciate the subject matter. Subject was free draw or tropical island. Here's what I came up with:



New York Tropical Islander. I am rendered helpless when confronted with the opportunity to make a pun.

This will hopefully help me with my warm up draw before I start knocking out the sketch cards I plan to send out to my blank card donaters. I really need the guidance especially since this hot mess was my actual daily sketch page from last night.

1980 Topps Bob Horner Sketch

My absolute favorite player when I was a kid on what I considered to be my very first card ever until someone in my class swiped it twenty-something years ago. I started this one back in October and just now finished it up tonight. I think I'm going to break out the pastels to color it so I've left out the logos and most of  the details for now.

I have three sketch cards and some paintings to work on though, so this one is going to be on the back burner for a while.

Living up to the new title

This


becomes this

which turns into this

and voila:

Pastel pony.

(this is fun)

I need to buy bigger paper

Or learn how to draw smaller. Or, better yet, learn how to fit everything into the space I want it to go in. You might have noticed the header has changed.

Yes, I know it's huge. It's only going to be up tonight. It's Halloween! Gotta celebrate! Plus the banner I wanted to put up isn't ready yet. So instead of working on that I took an hour or so to draw this because I am hyper efficient with my time. I screwed up with drawing it so the masterpiece above is actually two different drawings cobbled together using the magic of MSPaint. Here's part 1:

I drew Pipsqueak first, then Pinkie on a separate piece of paper when I realized she'd never fit, then did the lettering last because I suck at lettering. I also really, really suck at leaving enough space for text. I did that LAST and I still ran out of room. With over an inch of white space to the left of it. Guuuuuuuuh.

Here's Pinkie. I find Pinkie in a chicken suit to be the funniest thing ever. Don't pay any attention to the bottom right corner as I half assed the feather ruffle and gave Pinkie some serious thunder thighs. That'll happen after too much candy.

Here's a first draft of Pinkie. I got halfway through and realized I didn't like the face. I went ahead and finished it anyway just for the practice. Drawing that folded up arm a couple of times helped.

Here's the original screenshot I based it on. I got full body Pipsqueak and Pinkie's face from a couple other moments in the scene and mashed them all together. Then I mashed all that together in MSPaint. took a couple of hours total with the help of a couple of Yuenglings and some mixes from here.

There's LOTS more Halloween stuff scheduled for today, muahaha!

Happy Birthday Derpy Hooves

On this day one year ago, the Legend of Derpy Hooves was born.

Who knew how much fuss would get kicked up over an animation goof.

Knucksie goes back in time to offer some helpful advice

One good thing about my new found love of sketching is that when things go awry and I can't get a decent post up I can just post a drawing. Here's one I did a few weeks ago about my two favorite knuckleball pitchers. How Phil wearing a late '70s era Braves uniform is giving this advice to a 1968-version Jim Bouton I don't really know. Let's just go with time travel. Phil Niekro is the twelfth Doctor.

Jim:  Oh God, I'm gonna get released. Seriously, what the fuck happened to my fastball?!?
Phil: Dude, try this - trust me

Based on Jim's 1968 Topps card

And Phil's ubiquitous Upper Deck pose

These were done a few weeks ago, so compare with the Mantle to see if I've made any progress. I played it kinda fast and loose with these drawings also. Overall I was happy with them. On the Knucksie I managed to pull off two things that confuse the hell out of me: hands and foreshortening. I'm not as happy with Jim. I really wanted to capture the despair in Bouton's eyes on that '68 card and my eyes lean more toward panic. I compensated by adding some cartoony flop sweat to Jim to get the point across. That '68 card just struck me when I saw it in my Archives binder. I wish Jim had gotten a '69 Pilots card to replace that as his final Topps card. One thing I still can't draw worth a flip is stupid hats. I'm so sick of drawing baseball caps I'm ready to exclusively draw cards from 2010 Topps205.

The Mick in lieu of toons

I am totally not ready to start the 1954 Topps cartoons. I thought I would have time to get 'er done on a day off but I slept in because I could, worked for a while because I had to, chased after the kids for a while because I was unfortunate enough to get laid at some point in my past and then had to take the rugrats to a birthday party where one of them was forbidden to have fun because of some transgression this morning. I took the sketch pad with me to the Chuckie Cheeze and drew Mr. Topps while one child ran around like a maniac and the other one sulked while doing homework.

Some random worker at the Cheeze Factory made my day by coming up to me and saying she noticed I was sketching and asked if I drew for anyone. I told her that it was just a hobby and she said I was really good. I went into bashful mode, she went on with her duties and about five minutes later when I realized someone actually gave me a complement I started floating around the room. Thanks, Miss Chuck E Cheese sweeper upper!

Now its the time when I let it go to my head and start acting like a temperamental Arteest. You peasants will get 1954 Topps cartoons when I feel like it!

1953 Topps Cartoon - DIY Version

We now come to the real reason why I started posting cartoons. I wanted to do my own Topps Toons. Here's my interpretation of a 1953 Topps Dugout Quiz Cartoon:

I'm pretty sure that this was the cartoon that was supposed to be on the back of card 267, but the card got yanked and it was lost to history.

Here we have a tender moment between Warren Spahn and one of Wisconsin's many dairy cows. While my initial idea for the '53 cartoon was the Braves' move to Milwaukee this was not the original subject I had planned. I initially was going to draw Eddie Mathews with a frosty mug of beer. Then I realized that a ballplayer knocking down the suds was not really going to fly on a baseball card from the fifties. It's not terribly fair to Eddie either! So while Milwaukee is known for beer, Wisconsin is known for cows. Beer was out, milk was in (or rather, the production facility) and Eddie was replaced with Spahnnie. Warren actually owned a ranch in Oklahoma for many years so he might be more comfortable with the heffers while Eddie could sit and enjoy his brew off stage.

The reference photo for Warren came off his 1953 Bowman card. I thought Topps might like to pull a little prank on their competitors. I also used the Bowman B for the hat logo. For the cow I googled cartoon cow, looked at a couple of pages of cowtoons and ran with it. My cow is probably a bit more cutesy than anything that made it into the '53 set, but that's a byproduct of drawing precious perky ponies for a month solid. With this drawing I also did something for the first time - actually got the guts to ink the thing. Here's the raw ink before I MSPainted it into the cartoon above.

That was surprisingly much easier than I imagined. Inking is still a bit intimidating because you don't have the eraser to lean on, but it turned out reasonably ok considering I don't know what I'm doing and I only have #2 pencils and a Sharpie to work with.. I goofed up the shading on the right side of Warren's neck, but the paintbrush tool took care of that in the final version. One thing I couldn't get right in my cartoon was the font for "Dugout Quiz" I swear I've seen the font on the actual '53 card running around the internet before but I couldn't find it and I absolutley do not have time to edit it out of the actual card. If I was doing an entire set worth of cartoons, then maybe. Not doing it for one. Berlin Sans FB Demi is good enough to get the point across.

Here's the original sketch scanned for posterity. The plan is to do one of these home brew toons for each year. The other plan was to do one set a week, but that's out the window seeing as I haven't actually picked out the 1954 cartoons yet. Making my own toon is fun though, so you'll be seeing the backs of some '54s soon.

Sketchin' at the ballpark

I actually have some photos and goodies to show you all from the game tonight, but my bluetooth doodad is acting flaky and it's too damn late to be futzing with it. Maybe tomorrow night. I do have some stuff to share from my new hobby though.

One of my goals for this month was to try to sketch something every day, good or bad, pony or non-equine, drunk or not drunk. (usually drunk). Going to the Braves game tonight was pretty much going to chew up all my free time for the day I could use for sketching though. I came up with a clever plan... practice with some quick sketches of the Braves' starting 9 based on the pictures of them that were flashed up on the JumboTron BravesVision ScoreBoard thingy on the back of my ticket confirmation printout. It would be a way to practice on some ballplayers and force me to draw a little quicker than I'm used to. While it was a tad challenging trying to draw, look at the scoreboard and watch the pitch all at the same time, I'm relatively pleased with the outcome.  These aren't finished drawings by any stretch of the imagination, but for some quick practice, they're not too terrible. Most of them, anyway.

Michael Bourn

I'm pretty happy with how this one came out, but I did have three at-bats to work on it. Of all the facial expressions I drew this one looks the least ludicrous. Decent looking faces are hard. Gotta keep practicing. As you can see, the text from the ticket confirmation e-mail is a lot more visible on the scan than I expected.

Martin Prado

Martin looks a bit like the illegitimate child of Chief Wahoo here. His eyes do kinda look like that though in the original picture, although I exaggerated them more than I should have. Maybe I should work on caricature instead of portraiture. The obscene looking squiggle at the bottom left is a bat. You know the photo style, where the batter is pointing the bat at the viewer? Perspective's a bitch and I gave up rather quickly on that. I also had to edit this one a smidge, because some personal info was on the other side of the paper.

Chipper Jones

Chipper looks a bit old and haggard in this one and he may or may not have an entire can of Copenhagen in his right cheek. Actually that does kinda fit Chipper, doesn't it?

Dan Uggla

I thought this one sucked the entire time I was drawing it, but looking at it after the fact makes me like it a bit better. The picture for Uggla was this profile view that wasn't terribly flattering, but between the Popeye arm and the square jaw I like how it turned out. I also had to erase the nose and eye a couple times each  before they became more not awful. thank goodness for batting gloves, because I can't draw hands for crap.

Freddie Freeman

Another one that drifted into caricature, but I think of all of them this one is probably the most recognizable.

I'm not sure, but I think this was the reference photo used on the big board. I would normally link where I found it but the site was shady as hell so I just took a snip from the Google image search results.

Brian McCann

Guuuuuuuuh.

I actually think this is a pretty good likeness of Alex Gonzalez. It's a damn shame that I was using a Brian McCann photo as a reference when I drew it.

Matt Diaz

I'm not sure if this exercise was good for me because it got me to sketch things out very quickly or if it was bad because I didn't really use proper drawing techniques like drawing all those circles and skeletons and such. Matty D turned out OK I guess. I like his expression, but that arm is pretty noodly. Hands are my nemesis. No wonder I like drawing cartoon ponies. I'm still kinda bummed a lefty was pitching so I didn't get to sketch J-Hey.

Alex Gonzalez

You know, if I had just left out the names, I could probably have passed this off as McCann and McCann's sketch as Gonzo. I would have known however, and it would have remained a great shame to me forever. The effort level just wasn't here with Alex either, I could never half-ass a Mac sketch this way.

Randall Delgado

Delgado is the most bare-bones of all the sketches, mainly because he only got one at bat and wasn't up all that long during that one. It turned out ok though, especially because 95% of my readers couldn't pick out Delgado in a police lineup if there was a million dollars on the line.

I quit at about the 5th inning, once I had gotten all nine to the point where I just couldn't do anything more with them. The only other player whose picture I saw on the big board was George Jose Constanza, which was up and off in the space of about 10 seconds. It was still pretty fun though, and the most fun was my son looking over at me drawing with a fascinated expression. "That one looks done, dad!" If you say so kiddo... :)