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Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. Can I take you to a restaurant that’s got glass tables? You can watch yourself while you are eating.
WORDS
With Becky Lynch’s return for Survivor Series: War Games I felt it was a perfect time to do a new painting of her! There was footage of her preparing to go through the curtain for her SmackDown entrance that I fell in love with and used as my inspiration for this. Both her introspective posture as well as the blue lighting gave me a different way in to this painting than what I’ve traditionally done with her.
I did this all with watercolor, trying to see how far I could push the realism while also allowing the watery pigments to do their own thing. A sort of controlled chaos that I’m always attempting to balance within my work. I’m particularly happy with how the jacket turned out as well as the violet in her hair.
It’s a side of the WWE Superstars that you rarely get to see, as they prepare themselves to step through to a match or a confrontation, or to speak their minds. When I’m working backstage I’ve learned to spot that look and not interrupt them, to not get them off their games. For me personally, it’s an intriguing thing to portray in a painting for you to see.
ICYMI, here's last week's Canvas 2 Canvas episode. Tomorrow's will go up on WWE's YouTube channel at 11AM CST!
UPCOMING VIDEOS
Usos
RIVALRY SERIES (remember that?)Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens
Paul Heyman acrylic
Veer Mahaan
Card subject to change.
Hundreds of prints and paintings at Schamberger Labs!
Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Signed prints at WWE Auction.
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Instagram
YouTube
SCHAMBERGER LABS: THE SERIES! SEASON FINALE!
The next Wrestling Landscape Painting will be Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart from WrestleMania XII! It might be a week or two before I start as I need to bank up some paintings for WWE before their holiday break. Feeling like this will be an acrylic painting this time around.
WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK
Fire Power volume 5 by Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee felt like an artistic flex on Samnee’s part. Kirkman gave him a lot of room to do these outstanding two-page spreads of a giant mythical dragon running roughshod through the modern world that took my breath away. There’s other cool things, but the sight of the dragon swatting aside jets and aircraft carriers was RAD.
I’d been looking forward to reading Invisible Wounds: Interviews with American Vets by Jess Ruliffson since it was announced and it exceeded my high expectations. There’s a glossed-over glorification of war and soldiers in American culture that rarely reflects the realities these human beings experience. This book of journalism done as a graphic novel interviews several veterans about their experiences in America’s actions in the Middle East with frank honesty and humanity. It’s not a matter of “This is how it REALLY is,” but instead how it really was for these individual human beings.
I’ve never experienced what these people have and am unlikely to ever do anything similar in my life. I’ll never truly understand what it was like for them nor what it’s like for them reintegrating back into society. But I can do my best to listen and TRY to understand, instead of pushing my own ideologies or politics upon them.
Adventureman volume 2 by Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson is a fun romp imagining what it would look like if Doc Savage met The Neverending Story. A mother and her son discover a book from the early 1900’s about Adventureman and as they read it the events from the book become real. Volume two looks at what it’s like for them and their extended family living in this new reality of action and danger with some jaw-dropping visuals by the Dodsons. Seriously fun!
YOU GOOD?
The vast majority of our Black Friday deliveries went out by Thursday of this past week. A big thank you to the fine folks at Alphagraphics KC for turning the prints around so quickly and my buddy David who helps me with packaging them up! And thank you again to everyone who puts their hard-earned money towards my art. I see you and I value you.
Otherwise I spent the week trying to get back in the groove artistically after the Thanksgiving break. I did both this week’s Becky painting and next week’s Usos piece from start to finish. I need to bank up three more in the coming two weeks so that we’re covered for WWE’s holiday break. I think I’m going to finish strong for what I feel has been a very strong 2022 on the art side.
Seeing as this has been my most successful year of my career, it looks like you’re feeling the same!
Love you more,
Rob
EXCLUSIVE PAID SUBSCRIBER CONTENT
Paid subscribers this week will get an exclusive 25% off discount code for prints, upcoming signed print releases at WWE Auction, and 24 hour advance access for the original Becky Lynch painting. WE ARE GO FOR PAYWALL.
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