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Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. Color me once, color me twice, everything gonna turn out nice.
WORDS
I opened up 2022 with a painting of Bron Breakker so I thought it’d be fun to do the same thing again for 2023! I took what I like to think of as a ‘power chord’ approach to this, making it all about the energy and less about the finesse. The same way that punk rock was a reaction to the complex rock music of the 70’s, I made this as an expression of intensity.
First I applied some masking fluid to preserve the white of the paper for the highlights, then brushed on some colored ink for the first layer before using some painter’s tape as a double mask to make that geometric shape in the upper left corner and applying another layer of colored ink outside of it. After pulling my masks up, I used a large brush to put down my black ink to keep it from being too controlled and more organic, followed by a little bit of black colored pencil for a darker mid-tone. At this stage I recognized I wanted more highlights so I used a white paint marker and then went a little wild and dragged a utility knife across the surface to get that even wilder energy. Power chord art!
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
Damage Control
Mr Perfect!
Cody Rhodes
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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YouTube
SCHAMBERGER LABS: THE SERIES!
The next Wrestling Landscape Painting will be Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart from WrestleMania XII! It’s penciled out and I should begin painting on it this week. It’s going to be an acrylic painting like the Charlotte Flair one. But different.
WRESTLING PREDICTIONS FOR 2023
NOTE: I have no insider knowledge about anything I’m about to say here. This is just me on my couch having fun. Okay, we’ll see if that’s enough to keep the dirtsheets from running wild and taking things out of context.
WWE will keep its momentum after WrestleMania. Historically there’s a lull for a month or two after ‘Mania until things pick back up for SummerSlam, but I have a suspicion that the fire’s going to keep burning bright during this period. The possibility of a draft and a shuffling of talent between Raw and SmackDown will guarantee this.
Raw will have tent-pole event episodes like NXT does. Not all of NXT’s big shows have been Premium Live Events in recent years, notably Halloween Havoc or the Great American Bash. Triple H has already brought War Games to the main roster and I think this would be an exciting solution to keeping the three hour shows filled. They have a bigger roster than SmackDown and this would allow for more superstars to have deep storylines, as well as adding more to the bigger stories getting told on PLE’s. I’d personally like to call these episodes something like RAW IS WAR or RAW: MONDAY NITRO. Get that sweet nostalgia going.
WWE will have more talent-shares with Japanese and Mexican companies to create goodwill for NXT’s global expansion. I think they know that just setting up shop in these countries won’t work, but things like Nakamura wrestling Great Muta in NOAH and Karl Anderson competing in New Japan goes a long way to create a lot of good relationships. Something like Legado del Fantasma or Rey Mysterio showing up in AAA or CMLL seems like a no-brainer, too. If WWE’s playing the long game, and I suspect they are, this is the best way in.
Wrestling will become more valuable to top-tier streaming services for live content. Live programming is always preferred, as traditional broadcast and cable television have known forever but even moreso after streaming took off. But now there’s a crunch in the streaming world with likely more acquisitions coming like we saw with the Warner/Discovery merger and the big streamers like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime are going to want more live content. Netflix, to my knowledge, does NOT do live programming yet and I think they’ll start exploring this. Impact Wrestling seems like a prime brand to benefit the most from this, as their in-ring content and storylines are great but they could be greatly improved by a higher production budget, meaning they could scale up quickly to make the most of this.
Pro wrestling has historically been there for every major development in television, from regional television to cable to closed circuit to pay-per-view and now streaming. The reasons are that it’s exciting live content with a small budget to produce compared to other shows. Streaming has entered a crunch cycle and this sort of live content is going to become very valuable to the major players in the field.
Other than that? Some wrestlers are going to get mad at other wrestlers and there’s going to be fights coming out of it.
YOU GOOD?
Happy New Year!
Above is my new signature for the year. If you’re unfamiliar, my signature is a four-panel grid where the top two panels are my initials and the bottom two are the year, so:
RS
23
It baffles people until I say exactly what it is and then it’s all you can see. Obviously 2025 is going to be a big year brushstroke-wise. I like changing it up every year, as it’s an easy way to quickly tell when I made the piece and then it makes each year’s body of work a sort of exclusive time capsule. I know I’ve got collectors who try to get at least one original a year based on the signatures. Fun!
It also keeps me from feeling like I’m in a rut or doing the same thing over and over. I get to sort of be a whole new artist every year, but also still recognizably me. That’s especially relevant for 2023, where I’m intending to become a radically better artist by the end of the year than I am entering it. I mean, that’s the goal EVERY year but this time around I’m making the biggest steps to make it happen since I went full time in 2012. You’re worth it.
I hope 2023 is a great year for you in all of the ways that matter. I’ll be here in your inbox a few times a week to give you something nice to look at while you’re out there doing your thing.
Love you more,
Rob
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