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Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
WORDS
I’m always saying that my favorite subjects to paint are the ones where their own personalities are already so big that I can push it even further with the art, and Cora Jade is proving to be just that. I was feeling the need to ‘play some power chords’ as it were with a painting and she was the perfect person to feature for that, I feel.
For this piece, I first used masking fluid to cover up the areas that I wanted to be the highlights, maintaining the white of the paper. Then, I spread water across the paper and applied a bunch of colored ink, letting it spread around and go mad. Once that dried (would you believe my second-most-used tool behind a brush is a hairdryer?) I removed the masking fluid and then used a traditional round brush to apply some black ink. I felt that and the while spaces were a little too inorganic, too flat, so I used a filbert grainer brush to get a more chaotic look going to match the energy of the color. I finished by using a blade to actually carve into the paper to add to the chaos, a subtractive technique that when done sparingly gives a cool look.
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
Rey Mysterio
Iyo Sky
Roman Reigns 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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SCHAMBERGER LABS: THE SERIES! SEASON TWO!
I’m back and starting work on a large watercolor painting featuring The Undertaker! I do some shop talk, discussing technique and my thought process that has to be applied even at this early stage of a painting.
Can you believe this is four days’ worth of work? It’s so intimidating at this stage!
WHAT I LIKED LAST WEEK
The Milestone Generations documentary on HBO Max is a worthy watch. I recently started digging in on the Milestone comics a few months ago when DC released that massive compendium of their first year or so as well as the newer comics and really fell in love. I’ve been a fan of Denys Cowan’s work for a while, as well as so many other people involved like Dwayne McDuffie, ChrisCross, John Paul Leon and MD Bright. This doc looks back at their history of putting the company together and why it was so important to do so, and all of the change that the industry is still feeling from that today.
I finished reading Grendel Omnibus volume 1 by Matt Wagner the other day, collecting all of Wagner’s Hunter Rose stories. It’s a bit of a heavy read due to the character being a sociopath and the stories being very nihilistic. It’s like scrolling through Twitter! I used to feel like I liked Wagner’s early slicker art more than the Kurtzman-esque cartoony style he evolved into, but looking back at this work I really feel the reverse. He’s not doing as many fancy visuals because he doesn’t NEED to. There’s also the ‘Black, White and Red’ books collected here which have a who’s who of other artists included and seeing their takes on the iconic Hunter Rose Grendel character with Wagner writing is really special. Beautiful things mixed with nihilistic stories…yup, just like Twitter!
Iron Man: Books of Korvac III by Christopher Cantwell, CAFU, Angel Unzueta and friends is a hella good book. It finishes up Iron Man’s intergalactic battle with Korvac and sees Tony Stark become an omnipotent being. Now a god, he sets out to make life better for everyone and discovers that his own problems prevent him from even doing that. It goes from the macro to the micro and keeps its sights on the emotional needs and faults of its lead characters. Not surprising coming from Cantwell, one of the co-creators of Halt & Catch Fire and some gorgeous art that elevates everything to a wonderful level.
I came across this Specials concert from 1980 in Japan on a show called, appropriately, Young Music Show. Something about the VHS-to-digital transfer and the colored lighting ages REALLY well. It feels of its time and cutting edge at the same time, which funnily enough is also how I’d describe The Specials.
Last night Brock Lesnar uprooted the ring at SummerSlam using a tractor in his Last Man Standing Match against Roman Reigns. That’s a sentence I just typed out. As we all expected, WWE under Triple H is incredible and the team made a STATEMENT this past week. I’ll write more about this in Wednesday’s newsletter, but I wanted to check in today to confirm what your own eyes are seeing. It’s a fun time to be a pro wrestling fan!
YOU GOOD?
I realized the other day that I had missed a big landmark back in March, namely when I started seriously doing wrestling paintings TEN YEARS AGO. Ten years. A decade. Wild, it doesn’t feel like it at all. I feel like I was in high school longer. Past relationships felt longer.
Within a year I was under the WWE umbrella, but even before it’s been full-throttle pretty much from the beginning. The above Harley Race is one of the first paintings I made, as a proof-of-concept for the Kickstarter campaign I did that launched all of this.
To this day, everything I do is still completely funded by every person who buys the art. I don’t receive a salary, I’ve got no downside guarantee, I solely make my living from your support and it’s been that way all along.
Having my stuff (temporarily hopefully) come down from WWE Shop was a blow, but the big increase in sales on Schamberger Labs recently has shown your love for this art and damn it, it feels good. I’m constantly in doubt of everything I do, but your faith has been unwavering and I want you to know that you keep me going. Top to bottom, I’m only able to do this because of you.
Love you more,
Rob
EXCLUSIVE PAID SUBSCRIBER CONTENT
First up, through today your first month on the paid tier is only $5. Not bad.
Paid subscribers this week will get an exclusive 25% off discount code for prints and 24 hour advance access for the original Cora Jade painting. WE ARE GO FOR PAYWALL.
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