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Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. There is the sun and the moon, they sing their own sweet tune.
WORDS
Back in October, Roman Reigns made a rare live event appearance here in my hometown of Kansas City and it was important to me to memorialize that in a painting. A couple years ago Paul Heyman told me that the best painting I could do would be him in a supplicant pose as Roman Reigns makes his entrance and I felt like this was the best opportunity to make that happen.
A challenge I gave myself with this painting was to make Heyman appear to be ‘blurry’, to give the attention and focus to Reigns. I used a few techniques and special brushes to work with the edges on his figure to make that happen. It made the painting feel ‘off’ while working on it but it made the composition a lot stronger in the end. It gives a perception of depth and tells a visual story.
HELP MY MOTHER-IN-LAW WITH HER CANCER EXPENSES
My mother-in-law Ruth Ann has been battling cancer for a few years and the medical expenses have mounted up. The family has started a GoFundMe to help her out. If you can contribute even five or ten bucks it will help out a lot. She’s over a quarter of the way to her goal already.
Thank you for reading and thank you in advance for your help.
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
CM Punk
Kairi Sane (This may be next, actually. We’ll see. Depends on the WWE approval process.)
Iyo Sky
Randy Orton
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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Instagram
Threads
YouTube
WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK
I hadn’t watched Moonlighting since it originally aired, and I was nervous to start rewatching it now that it’s on Hulu. Like, what if it was in Knight Rider territory, where I remembered loving it as a kid but watching it as an adult it was…not so good? Not only is it as good as I remembered, it’s miles better. I’m through the first season now, and it took a couple episodes for them to find their footing but man, when they did it was like a thunderclap. Cybill Shepherd is a force of nature, playing the strong female lead thrust into a new world and immediately at odds with Bruce Willis’ private eye character. It’s a high budget action-adventure screwball comedy that never gets tiring.
It’s immediately apparent why this show launched Willis to be an immediate A-list celebrity. He’s GIVING a performance that so many less-competent male leads tried to emulate in the 80’s and 90’s but never nailing it. It’s like, OH, that’s what all of these odd performances from that time were attempting. Wild. But golly, Shepherd is grounding Willis’ performance while still being light and fun. It’s electric and a delight to watch.
A Disturbance in the Force is a documentary about the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special from 1978 and what exactly happened with it. Growing up in the pre-internet age, going to conventions and seeing it omnipresent with the tape traders, I was aware of its existence but never bought one of those bootlegs. I knew Bea Arthur did a cabaret act in the Mos Eisley cantina, I knew there was that rad Boba Fett cartoon, and of course I knew about the grandpa Wookie watching VR pr0n. I watched it once in full, The Ring style, and have no intention to see it again. BUT!
This documentary is outstanding, interviewing people who were involved in the production and people it affected. They do an excellent job of putting it in its cultural context, when there was a world that gave us the Donnie and Marie Star Wars variety special where Kris Kristofferson was Han Solo, but also other variety shows like Wayne Newton at SeaWorld, the Paul Lynde Halloween Special, or that variety hour starring TWO MIMES. Like, these variety shows were just a thing that happened back then and in all honesty, the Star Wars one was the best of the bunch.
But also, Grandpa Wookie getting down with some VR pr0n.
Venture Bros: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart wraps up the Venture Bros. saga and is utterly perfect. The amount of jokes they get in, sight gags and wrapping up of loose story threads is a bit of a masterpiece, honestly. I’m awed by how they pulled it off, having something this dense still feel airy and a joy to watch. Plus, there’s finally an epic Blacula fight.
Wilson Pickett headlines this episode of The Midnight Special, with some wonderful performances from Curtis Mayfield and more, but 56 minutes in there’s a lovely melodica performance by the Chi-Lites during ‘Oh Girl’ that popped me. It’s such a unique instrument and I get excited whenever I see one used.
FIGURE DRAWING SESSION
I went to the monthly live model drawing group at Art School KC on Tuesday night and our model Joanna was outstanding. Fellow artists understand, there’s a difference when you have a really great model and that was exactly what we had this week. Fun poses, a face that played well with light and shadows, and an engaged group of artists making the most of it all.
I used a parallel pen for the first time with this session and adored the results I got with it. Primarily used for calligraphy, it gives an unexpected variety of lines that keeps it all very organic.
Pardon my vulnerability here, but I’ve had a hell of a tough year behind the scenes (I’ve touched on it here and there) and have had a lot of confidence issues with my art of late. I’ve got this brainworm that the audience only cares about the subject of my art and not about the art. Right or wrong, that’s been nagging at the back of my head and Tuesday night I shared my drawings from this session on Instagram and got a solid amount of love for them.
I needed that. It was a win and I’m allowing it to land with me. Tortured artist stuff, baby!
He works so hard and I truly appreciate it.
YOU GOOD?
I told David that I wanted get an Employee of the Month plaque for the Schamberger Labs Art Fulfillment Center and he gave me a look and said, “WHY?” (David’s my only employee, by the way.) But then I said it was for Godzilla and that we should give serious thought to RoboCop and suddenly David was on board.
I’ve also got my eye on The Shockmaster who’s on the verge of a serious breakthrough.
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 ROMAN REIGNS painting! Exclamation points!
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