LA KNIGHT: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 11JUN23

We are afflicted by fiction.

Jun 10, 2023

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Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. You don’t have to make it right, just hold your head up high.

WORDS

For my first-ever LA Knight painting my inspiration came from action movie posters of the 70’s and 80’s. Explosions, awesome cars and more all around the action man. I’ve played around with this idea before, but I did a mix of mediums to give this piece a different vibrancy and polish.

LA Knight, the sun and the explosion were all done with watercolor and a touch of ink and the other elements were done with thinned-down acrylic paint, giving me a different look than if I had used just one of them. Like, that care feels straight up 3-D in front of that explosion, for instance. I finished with some tiny pieces of debris floating around to bring the composition all together.

It’s my first painting of the megastar LA Knight, but I doubt it will be my last.

ICYMI, here's last week's Canvas 2 Canvas episode. Tomorrow's episode will go up on WWE's YouTube channel at 11AM CST!

UPCOMING VIDEOS

6/25 - The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin Wrestling Landscape
7/9 - Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn
7/23 - Pretty Deadly

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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FIGURE DRAWING SESSION

I felt like I had a pretty strong outing this week at our monthly figure drawing session at Art School KC with longtime regular model Doug. After an emotional few days prior, it was wonderful getting out of the house and making some art just for myself.

I got a travel set of Koi watercolors a month or two back and this was my first time working with them in this setting. I’m super happy with the results I got. They’ve got a lush, vibrant and creamy nature to them, some bold pigments that aren’t chalky when used.

I leaned a little more into realism and trying to get Doug’s likeness, challenging myself as this isn’t the easiest thing to do with timed poses. The above was a 15 minute pose and the below was 25 minutes, for reference’ sake. But that’s also the point of live figure drawing: To get as much information in as quickly and as accurately as possible. I’m happy with the work I did.

WHAT I LIKED THE PAST COUPLE WEEKS

I finished up listening to the audiobook of The Black Ice by Michael Connelly a few days ago, the second in the Harry Bosch series of novels. Overall very enjoyable. It seemed to be less of the procedural that The Black Echo was, and strayed more towards improbable setups than what the first book presented, but the Bosch character is so compelling and Connelly’s writing is strong enough to still make it a very compelling story.

The Barry Series Finale was simply fantastic. The cast were all fantastic, the payoff was worth it, and Coen Bros.-esque tone and delivery to the show made the balance of laugh-out-loud humor with severe violence become a beautiful duet.

With everything we had going on, Katy and I wanted to watch something big, dumb and fun as so much of what we normally watch is pretty heavy. And that led us over the past two or three weeks to watch the first six Fast and Furious movies. It’s wild how this series goes from being about a group of street racers stealing some combo VCR/DVD players to taking down international terrorists and a tank. And The Rock! I know they only get more and more wild and that John Cena and Helen Mirren join, and that there’s a race in space, and friend I am -here- for it. Big, dumb and fun achievement unlocked.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season two starts on Thursday! Easily my favorite new Trek show and in my opinion the best since TNG and DS9.

ROCK VS AUSTIN WRESTLING LANDSCAPE PROGRESS

In-ring action! I painted in the ropes, amazingly with four coats for each rope because that’s how I’m doing this dang thing. Then I did a couple coats of thinned-out white glaze for the ring, to preserve some of that light blue underpainting and also for the texture. This was my first time painting ring canvas this way and I’m fond of the results.

Then I painted in the referee, going a bit abstract on his features to try to keep him from becoming the focal point of the composition. It’s a subtle thing, but he’s at the center of the piece and it’d be really easy for him to distract the viewer’s attention from Rock and Austin once it’s done. I’ll do a few other techniques for each of them to make sure they’re the focus of the painting and to give them some extra gravitas.

Next week: I go one on one with the great one!

Look at that face. She’s a queen.

YOU GOOD?

Nothing really to report on the WWE Shop front yet. Emails are going back and forth and their legal department has the matter in their workflow. I’ve had several people reach out about how to get Superstar-signed prints and unfortunately those are on hold until this other thing gets taken care of. I do everything above board, so that means we have to wait a little bit sometimes. It’s frustrating in the moment but good for the long term.

You’ll be the third to know once everything’s live. (Katy and my assistant David get to know before you!) I’ll send out an email blast and post about it on Instagram.

Thanks for your patience with that, and with the reduced frequency of newsletters and my overall reduced presence online over the past few weeks. Life has a way of intruding sometimes and this was one of those times with Korma’s passing.

Therapy works. The self-care tools I’ve learned in therapy are working. Katy and I miss our dude, we’re processing our grief, but we’re also moving forward. We’re even maybe getting Kima a new little sibling today. Prepare yourself for important updates on IG.

What else? The garden is coming in good. Some tomatoes showing up on the vines, some peppers growing out of their blooms. I just adore gardening. I have to be in the moment with it and when I’m done I have delicious vegetables to cook with. Pretty brilliant.

Love you more,
Rob

EXCLUSIVE PAID SUBSCRIBER CONTENT

Paid subscribers this week will get an exclusive 25% off discount code for prints, 24 hour early access to the ORIGINAL LA KNIGHT PAINTING and access to the exclusive chat. WE ARE GO FOR PAYWALL.

JUNE SCHAMBERGER LABS DISCOUNT CODE

Through the end of June, use the promo code 4HJZA3MNYEYK at checkout for 25% off all prints at schambergerlabs.com! This is an exclusive for paid subscribers, so kayfabe this one. It’s just for you because you’re amazing.

ORIGINAL LA KNIGHT PAINTING

Ink, Watercolor and Acrylic on 14” x 17” Bristol Board

Only one person gets the original painting, where I put brush to paper and physically created it. Since you’re a paid subscriber I think you should get a 24 hour lead on everyone else before it becomes publicly available. Here’s the link if you want to go for it. I have a hunch that you might with this one.

Love you even more,

Rob