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Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. Starting and then stopping, taking off and landing.
WORDS
For some reason, one of the toughest subjects for me to paint has been Rhea Ripley. I’ve gotten the likeness down but have rarely nailed the energy of her. I feel like I got it right this time around, though. I leaned into the hardness of her persona and look, more than I would with other people and that seemed to really work.
I put down some masking fluid first for the areas that I wanted to be the white of the paper and then did the red background. Instead of making her figure a more pure greyscale I added in some earth-tone to the first layer of grey to give it a more gritty feel. Then I added the darker shade of grey using a grainer brush to get that pronounced texture that I’m enjoying so much right now. Before inking I also put in that little dot of red in her eye to add a sinister narrative to the whole composition.
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
Becky Lynch
Alba Fyre
Select Series Wave 33: The Bloodline Wave
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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Shirts and prints at WWE Shop.
Signed prints at WWE Auction.
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WHAT I LIKED LAST WEEK
Katy and I were ecstatic for the debut of Hacks season two. We’re only a couple episodes in since she was out of town but it’s like being reconnected with some dear friends you haven’t seen in a while. The dynamic created between the two leads falling out of the season one finale is going to make for some fantastic storytelling, I can already tell.
Yellow Cab by Benoit Cohen and Christophe Chaboute is a pure delight. This graphic novel adaptation of Cohen’s 2017 memoir about the time he spent working as a New York cab driver is purely wonderful. After a successful career as a French cinema director, Cohen moved to New York and went through the process of becoming a cabbie to research a new movie he wanted to make. So it’s equal parts learning everything needed for the job and process to get licensed and watching him develop the character and story for the movie he wants to make. Chaboute does a pitch-perfect job of adapting this to the graphic novel format, letting the images do the heavy lifting and giving them time to breathe, making the streets of New York as important a character as Cohen himself. Highly recommended.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
What’s your first memory of a giant monster? Godzilla, King Kong, Gamera, it doesn’t matter, take your pick! I’ll randomly pick one of these answers and send them this original 9x12 Godzilla painting I did back in 2015! Can’t leave a comment? That’s because you’re not in our ultra-rad paid tier yet, silly!
I feel like my first memory of a giant monster was the original King Kong movie when I was around three years old. They used to show classic sci-fi and monster movies after the cartoons on either Saturday or Sunday and this was definitely my first. I think the next week they showed the Japanese King Kong movie ‘King Kong Escapes’ from the mad geniuses at Toho, and it may have been back-to-back with King Kong vs Godzilla. I’ve been chasing that nostalgia high ever since, honestly. Probably a week hasn’t gone by where I haven’t thought about how excited I was to originally watch them!
I feel like we didn’t get a lot of the Toho stuff on broadcast TV in Kansas City in the 80’s, so my full-on exposure to Godzilla would’ve happened later in the decade when we got cable and the Showa era was sorta omni-present later at night to fill up the channels’ schedules. I remember thinking it looked goofy but also could never look away when one was on. I feel like around 1992-93 I saw an original Ultraman show at a comic convention. We definitely didn’t get any of that here in KC.
Just a few years later Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came along to mainstream giant monsters and while I watched the first couple of seasons I think I was like one year too old to really get into it. The monster designs were all killer, though.
So, what’s your first memory of a guy in a rubber suit stomping through a miniature city?
SCHAMBERGER LABS: THE SERIES!
This week while working on my major new painting of Charlotte Flair I did a Q&A, answering questions from the folks on Twitter. Fun stuff, sometimes really personal, but all honest and heartfelt. Worth a watch!
Paid tier members can see each episode a week early!
YOU GOOD?
The first half of the week was a whirlwind for me. That dumb stomach bug I had the week before really put me behind on my workload, especially a deadline for a big new outside-of-wrestling project that’ll be announced pretty soon. It’s never fun sending that message to a client but I’ve found it’s always better to do so before it becomes a problem. Luckily it worked out but this is one of only like five times where I haven’t hit my deliverable date.
We’re all out here doing our best, right?
The peonies started opening up this week, the above a picture from our back yard. Our hydrangea’s started getting buds this week too which I’m excited for because ours are somehow extra-special pretty. Some sorcerous combination of lighting, soil and watering I suppose.
I’m back in good health, back on top of my workload and Katy’s back in town after a week on a major client trip to Chicago so we’re holding it down here at stately Schamberger manor. I hope you’re good on your end too, friend.
Love you more,
Rob
EXCLUSIVE PAID SUBSCRIBER CONTENT
Paid subscribers this week will get an exclusive 25% off discount code for prints, a list of the coming week’s signed prints at WWE Auction, and 24 hour advance access for the original Rhea Ripley painting. AND the new episode of our new weekly show where you get to see the process for an exclusive major Charlotte Flair painting! WE ARE GO FOR PAYWALL.
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