Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. And although my eyes were open they might have just as well’ve been closed.
PAINTING PROCESS
Friday morning was one of the monthly figure drawing groups I go to, this time a 2 hour pose with our model Larry. I thought it’d be fun to do an acrylic painting this time around, thinking it’d be a fun challenge. Larry was also kind enough to let me take a picture of him because I loved the lighting and I did a small 9x12 watercolor back in the studio, and that’s what I posted above.
So, back to the 2 hour pose. After applying a quick midtone, I did some quick gestural sketch marks with some brown paint to get the basic shapes down and then began painting the darkest shadows first with some black paint. By and large, because acrylic paints are opaque it’s best to work light-to-dark and back-to-front. It helps with developing the illusion of depth and form.
Next, I worked in some mid-tone greys and whites, just getting the basic planes of lighting down. All of this will be fine-tuned as I go, so this stage is simply about the basics.
I’m using a process called ‘indirect painting’ here, where I’m developing the tones with monochromatic black and white. Once I had that part done, I mixed some satin glazing liquid in with quinacridone/ nickel azo gold and applied that over the underpainting, creating a rich surface to begin actually painting on. You can see I started painting in the background too, before remembering to take this progress shot!
There was a gorgeous aqua blue wall behind the model that I felt made his skin pop and committed to that for the background here, too. I wanted an expressive nature to this and intentionally kept those brushstrokes in because they looked damn cool. To keep some balance, I also put a little bit of that blue into the shadow under his chin. I wasn’t committed to that, but I thought it was a good place for it at the time.
Sticking to the ‘back-to-front, dark-to-light’ method of painting with acrylics, now that the background was done I painted the shoulder in, because it was behind how his neck was positioned. Then I added a bit of a rich deep brown for the shadows on his neck.
After some more rendering, I put a little of that nickel azo gold glaze over the background to give it some richness. As I was observing the model, there was this big neutral area in the middle of his head behind his face and around the ear. Instead of using some grey and inspired by that little bit of blue I’d put under the chin (and consequently painted over), I opted with a lighter purple. I like using this shade sometimes as an alternative neutral and with the color palette this piece had it REALLY worked.
Finally, I popped in some highlights with a light bismuth yellow rather than white, as the light source had a yellow tint to it and I feel like sometimes white can overpower a piece like this if used too much.
And there’s the finished piece…not bad! I feel like I made the most of the time I had and pushed myself as an artist. Thanks again to our model Larry and our host Joanna for putting all of this together.
Here’s a progress shot for my upcoming Terry Funk painting. I used a lot of the techniques I just talked about to make this, actually. It’ll fully debut in a couple weeks on March 10, and trust me when I say it’ll be fully worth the wait!
UPCOMING WWE PAINTINGS
Terry Funk
Bayley
The Rock
Jade Cargill
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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Rob’s prints on WWE Shop!
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Instagram
YouTube
WHAT I LIKED THE PAST COUPLE WEEKS
The True Detective: Night Country finale did the job well, I feel. It gave all of the information you would need to decide whether there were logical real-world explanations for everything happening or if there was a supernatural bent to it. Is the spiral some sort of haunted symbol or is it apophenia? Is Navarro seeing ghosts or does she have the same mental health problems as her mom and sister? What’s Navarro’s ultimate fate? It may seem cute, but I think the actual true detective of this season is the viewer.
Katy and I watched the finale for Expats and dang this was a wonderfully-executed miniseries. It was really heavy but also genuine and funny. I think the questions it asked of its characters and of the viewer were genuinely challenging and depending on where you fall with your answers leads you to who you view as the protagonists and antagonists.
A few weeks ago I started rewatching/finally watching Twin Peaks. I had watched it when it was originally airing (why was a 9/10 year-old watching this show!?!) but stopped when the killer of Laura Palmer was revealed because…well, that was a little too much for me at that age and everything it implied. So, I remembered everything up to that point fairly well and came into the second half of season two fresh. There’s definitely a drop-off after the big reveal but they found their footing again with the Black Lodge stuff. But gosh, the Laura Palmer arc holds up and still stands toe to toe with anything from the ‘prestige era’ of TV.
Anyway, my theory is that there’s nothing supernatural in Twin Peaks and instead it’s one of two scenarios: The supernatural elements are all metaphors OR it’s all a dream/ dissociative state Laura is experiencing as her brain tries to make sense of her trauma. Both things are stand-ins allowing David Lynch and company to explore the true horrors of what Laura’s father did to her. In my mind, when you have a real-life horror like that you don’t need to explain it all away with ghosts and goblins.
(I haven’t watched Twin Peaks: The Return yet, so if I’m way off base please be kind to me.)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Dog of War by Mike Chen and Angel Hernandez is one of the better Trek comics I’ve read. Quark gets a corgi and through a series of events this could change the direction of the Dominion War. Kinda perfect. The characterizations are spot-on and Hernandez nailed the likenesses without anything feeling static or too referenced. Just a ton of fun, honestly.
The Incredible Hulk volume 1 by Phillip Kennedy Johhnson and Nic Klein takes the character back to his monstrous roots. It’s more of a horror approach to the Hulk, leaning into its Jeckyll and Hyde origins but with a bit of Cthulhu myth thrown in. Naturally. Klein’s art is spot-on for this approach, hitting all of the moods that Johnson’s script calls for from big action to quiet moments and an overall sense of dread.
FEBRUARY SCHAMBERGER LABS DISCOUNT CODE
Through the end of February, use the promo code FEB24 at checkout for 20% off all prints at schambergerlabs.com! This is an exclusive for subscribers, so kayfabe this one. It’s just for you because you’re amazing.
YOU GOOD?
I’m in a good spot at the moment. It felt great getting back to work on WWE stuff. Gave me a little more purpose and drive, I feel. I realized I’m settling into a new normal and it’s just taken some time to adjust to it.
But I’m adjusting.
Love you more,
Rob