SHOP TALK: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 02MAR25
One more time.
Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. You know we're gonna do it right.
WORDS
NEEDS: DISCOVERY
Watercolor on 12” x 16” watercolor paper
“The action or process of discovering or being discovered.”
In my original sketch for this, I envisioned the model looking up in thought and making a discovery. But when we were doing the shoot, Joanna said that she tends to look down and close her eyes when in thought. The best part of collaborating with a model and photographer is getting other voices in the mix and there was this moment where she put her hand on her chest and it was like a crash of lightning across my imagination. It’s an internal discovery, not external, and the beauty of that idea ended up informing the whole composition.
NEEDS: BEAUTY/ GRATITUDE
Watercolor on 12” x 16” watercolor paper
Beauty: a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.
Gratitude: readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
Occasionally a painting turns into something far more interesting than what I’d intended and this was one of those. Something magic happened here.
“In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
MYSTERY MAN
I’m not quite done with this giant ‘double-page spread’ but it’s close. I’ve probably spent more time on this than I did the entire 6 page comic when I was 13. If I’ve learned anything in my years since, it’s patience! The buildings on the right were done with grey markers, the figure with a parallel pen and reactivating the water-soluble ink to make the mid-tone washes. I ruled out the building on the left with a technical pen and then added the shadows and organic nature with the parallel pen. I’ll add the washes over the next couple days.
Really happy with how it’s coming along and again, it’s a true joy collaborating with my younger self on this.
I don’t know which of these is coming out on Thursday. I’ll let you know on Bluesky once I’m told.
UPCOMING AEW/PWT PAINTINGS
FTR
Thunder Rosa
Samoa Joe
Julia Hart
Will Ospreay
Mercedes Mone
Card subject to change.
Use the promo code ROBFEB25 at checkout on ShopAEW and Pro Wrestling Tees to get 25% off any of my existing prints older than one month! Several of these are close to selling out so this is a great time to swoop in and get yours.
Rob’s Art on ShopAEW
###
Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
###
Rob’s prints and shirts at Pro Wrestling Tees
###
Bluesky
Cara
YouTube
WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK
I watched Foundation season one over the past week or so. I’m not a huge Asimov devotee, who wrote the books that this series is based on. I read the first book and found it dry, honestly. But I’d heard this was pretty good and…yeah, it’s pretty good. It’s still a little more plot-focused than character-driven, but a lot less so than the books. All of the female characters added to the show are also welcome as the first book was a sausage party. Gripes aside, its really gorgeous to look at and the big moments are properly epic.
I finished listening to the audiobook for Scarecrow by Michael Connelly yesterday while working. It’s the first one that felt like it transcended from ‘good enough’ to ‘pretty good, actually.’ It’s got its silly moments but it’s a well-rounded story that I’m honestly amazed hasn’t been turned into a movie.
I’d been really excited to read Life Drawing by Jaime Hernandez and as always is the case with his work I was still amazed by how great it is. The latest collection of his work from Love & Rockets it continues to show that he very well may be the best cartoonist working today. His characters are both written and drawn with such humanity and emotion and it’s been a joy growing up and aging with all of them. It’s equally jarring and heartwarming to see Maggie and Hopey now being the older characters and it all feels so perfectly earned.
I read two James Tynion IV books this week in Deviant volume one with Joshua Hixson and W0rldtr33 volume two with Fernando Blanco. Different concepts for each but both do a great job at establishing strong atmospheres around modern and relatable characters.
No spoilers, but Friday’s episode (season two, episode 7) of Severance was the best yet. Just brilliant.
Important Tikka Update
YOU GOOD?
I did this sort of meme interview on Bluesky the other day and thought it’d be fun to share here:
Do you prefer traditional drawing or digital?
Traditional. I just never developed the skills to utilize digital tools. Also, at the time I was trying to make my career everyone was moving to digital and I felt a good way to stand out was to work traditionally. I also like having dirty hands at the end of a day’s work.
How long have you been drawing?
I decided I wanted to be an artist when I was 8, I think. So…36 years? I got my first professional job when I was 17 selling self-published comics out of the trunk of my car around town. Had day jobs to supplement my art career for a while. I’ve been a full-time professional artist since 2013.
How many classes have you taken?
Not many. I had some solid foundational classes in high school but I wasn’t in a position to go to college out of high school so I’m otherwise self-taught. I regularly go to figure drawing sessions and last year spent a couple weeks studying in Florence, Italy.
What’s your favorite thing to draw?
My favorite thing to paint is the human figure. It’s endlessly fascinating even with the same subject, but so much more with different models. And then adding environments around them? It’s the best. And you can ALWAYS get better, which is my favorite kind of challenge.
How often do you use references?
Regularly. Most often from photos but also from life. But also just as a starting point, giving me a foundation to improvise from until I get the painting where I want it. I liken it to improvisational jazz, where the band starts together and ends together, but go where the inspiration leads.
What’s your least favorite thing to draw?
Words. My handwriting is terrible and my attempts at lettering are barely any better. Unless they’re a part of the composition, I feel like they’re also distracting to a piece even when done well because that’s where the viewer’s eyes go. Like, it needs to be purposeful.
Do you draw professionally or just for fun?
Art is my only source of income and has been for over a decade. But it’s not an either/or thing. Like, professional cooks still make food for themselves to eat, y’know?
Are you confident about your art?
A regular subject in therapy! I’ve gotten past my imposter syndrome, but my C-PTSD related self-hatred has an active voice in how I view my own work. That said, historically I tend to only like about 1 of my paintings a year and last year there were around 30 I felt I did good on. Therapy works!
Do you prefer to keep your art personal, or do you like drawing things for other people?
I ultimately make my art for myself, even my commercial work. I’m my first audience. The second audience is my wife and then yeah, I enjoy sharing online and of course selling it to the people it connects with. And my cats. They’re big art fans.
Do you ever collaborate with others?
As far as collaborating directly with another artist, not really. A handful of times. On the commercial side, it’s all about collaborating with the client. For my fine art stuff, I’ll collaborate with a photographer and model, which is a fantastic experience.
How long does an average piece take you to complete?
There’s no average, as it all depends on the size and complexity of each. Or: A lifetime. Each piece is informed by everything else I’ve ever made before it, learning from everything that went right or wrong. As artists we build a body of work, not individual works.
Do you draw more today than you did in the past, or do you draw less?
Huh. I don’t know how to answer this. There were about 4 years where I didn’t draw or paint, from 18-22 when I was focused on writing. Otherwise about 6 days a week I’m making art. Even when I had a day job I drew/painted 4 hours a day M-F and 8-12 hours on the weekends.
What are you currently trying to improve on?
Every aspect of everything that I do. There’s nothing that I do where I feel like I couldn’t do it better.
What is most difficult for you to draw?
Honestly, everything. I’m legitimately dyslexic so everything is tough to do because my brain sees everything from right to left. Also: Horses. When Jim Starlin was asked why all of his comics are set in outer space he said, “There’s no horses in space.”
What’s the easiest thing for you to draw?
I find silhouetted trees to be really easy and enjoyable. The organic geometry of them, I guess. The less accurate and more stylized you get, the better and more realistic they tend to look.
Do you like to challenge yourself?
My therapist has told me that I’m unusually open to being challenged, actually. Because I view my artistic journey as making a body of work rather than a single work, I push myself regularly. Any time I feel like a painting is easy or boring, I know that it’s time to try harder.
Are you confident you are improving steadily?
I like to think so. If anything, I’m improving at getting confident. I feel like I have a greater degree of polish to my work than what I was making 10 years ago.
Do you feel jealous when you see other people’s art or inspired?
I like to think of painting as a form of problem solving. Like, how do you use these colors or these tools and techniques to make it look a certain way. So I look at others’ work to study how they solved those problems. Some make me want to throw a brick through my drawing table, though.
Do you like to draw in silence or with music?
Podcasts and audiobooks, actually. Being an artist tends to be a solitary existence so I like to at least pretend to be around humans.
For digital art, what programs do you use?
Other than some slight editing like white balancing and file sizes in Photoshop, I don’t do anything digitally. They’re tools and skills I never learned. Kind of like how I never got into oils, it’s just another medium I haven’t explored.
For traditional art, what medium do you like most?
Watercolor, acrylic and ink are what I use the most. The chaotic nature of watercolor is so fun and engaging. There’s a lot of ways to make acrylics chaotic that are also a blast to experiment with, especially since I started learning more about glazes and indirect painting. Ink is my first love, going back to getting into art through comic books.
What inspires you to not just make art, but to be a better artist?
I’m always chasing a feeling from my own art. There’s not a specific word for it, but there’s a way I feel when I see art that truly speaks to me and I’m always trying to get that same feeling from what I make. On treasured occasions it actually happens!
Love you more,
Rob