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Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. And you’ll hum this tune forever.
WORDS
Kairi Sane is one of my very favorite subjects to paint, so when she returned I was excited about doing a new piece featuring her. For this one, I chose to do a different approach from a lot of my recent acrylic work and instead use a more traditional realistic look. While the background is more expressionistic, I wanted to be as representational as possible, not just with her likeness but also with all of the various surfaces and textures of her gear. It was way outside of my comfort zone and from the results I’m glad I challenged myself.
ICYMI, here's the latest Canvas 2 Canvas episode. Tomorrow’s episode will go up on WWE's YouTube channel at 12PM CST!
UPCOMING PAINTINGS
Randy Orton
Iyo Sky
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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Prints and Signed Prints at WWE Shop
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WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK
Katy and I flew through the first season of The Diplomat. It’s a very different performance from Keri Russell compared to The Americans and I dug it. A little lighter, sometimes a lot lighter, but still with gravity. I enjoyed how they continued to make her job as the US ambassador to the UK more and more complicated with higher and higher stakes, while her personal life also equally complicates and disintegrates.
I was still sick for the first half of this week and watched both seasons of Reacher since I couldn’t do much else. It gets a little goofy and unrealistic at times, but I’m totally okay with that. Not everything needs to be super serious and realistic, and this show instead leans into being fun and watchable. I think I enjoyed the first season’s premise a little more, but the A-Team vibes of season two makes it a blast to watch.
Katy and I went into watching Barbarian having avoided all spoilers and I’m so glad we did. This movie is OUTSTANDING and defies all expectations. Whatever you think it is, it keeps subverting all expectations. There’s a moment when a nose gets booped and I lost my got dang mind when it happened. It’s…well, the trailer says it’s a movie about an Air BnB rental that turns into some sort of survivalist horror story, and it’s kind of that but…geez. This movie needs to be seen and EXPERIENCED.
I finished up reading the complete Tellos by Todd Dezago and Mike Wieringo for the first time since it was originally serialized and what a gem this book is. ‘Ringo’s passing is still a giant loss to the medium of comics all of these years later, but golly what an artist he was. Fun, action-packed and full of humanity. This fantasy quest tale that’s actually something more profound hits just as emotionally today as the first time I read it.
Clobberin’ Time by Steve Skroce is a real smashmouth experience. The Thing is pulled into an adventure across the Marvel Universe, leading to teamups with The Hulk, Wolverine, Dr Strange and….Dr Doom? If you’re unfamiliar with Skroce’s name, you’re likely familiar with his work as he was the storyboard artist for The Matrix movies, and his kinetic style is perfect for this giant story of The Thing punching various people, creatures and assorted stuff.
HP Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth adapted by Gou Tanabe is a terrifying thing to behold. Tanabe’s Lovecraft adaptations have all been properly haunting and this is no exception. The overall problem with any visual adaptation of Lovecraft is that the Cthulhu stuff is just not that scary to actually see, instead of imagine. But Tanabe’s style along with his decisions on how much to show and how much to obscure with shadow overcomes that challenge in a horribly beautiful way.
ART FOR ART’S SAKE
I had a few days between projects this week and made a couple paintings just for the fun of painting. Above is a 9x12 watercolor of Greta Garbo. In an alternate universe I only make paintings of Garbo and it’s a fabulous existence.
This one is another 9x12 watercolor, this time of Betty Grable.
I’m not a classic Hollywood aficionado by any means, but I’m definitely a casual fan. Definitely of the imagery of that time period.
It’s fun to flex different creative muscles and I’m really happy with the results.
Back at it.
YOU GOOD?
I was still sick the first half of the week and I learned a long time ago to not try to rush that. But by Wednesday I was able to start working a little bit and wrapped up painting my new Randy Orton piece.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon at my friend Paul Andrews’ studio with our model Jenny to shoot reference for my next Emotion Series painting. I feel like a big time artist whenever we do these shoots, knowing that it’s going to be exactly what I want but also letting Paul and Jenny do what they professionally do and getting some rad surprises from it. They both have different viewpoints from my own and when we all work together some true magic happens.
Anyway. Glad I’m not sick anymore.
Love you more,
Rob
EXCLUSIVE PAID SUBSCRIBER CONTENT
Paid subscribers this week will get an exclusive 25% off discount code for prints! You’ll also know about the signed prints coming soon to WWE Shop! Lots of them. Plus, 24 hour early access to the original KAIRI SANE painting! Exclamation points!
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