SHOP TALK: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 21MAY23

Just like the films.

Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. Nothing much could happen, nothing we can’t shake.

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WHAT’S NEW?  

Some things are happening, some aren’t, and we’re going to TALK about them, friend. That’s what we’re going to do. Talk about things.

I was told that the rest of my WWE Shop items would be live by the end of this week and…it looks like that hasn’t quite happened yet. Everything’s done on my end as far as I know, so it’s a matter of Fanatics/WWE Shop doing the finishing touches on their end. We’ve been in communication this week and I know they’re working on it but there’s, like, over 120 items to launch and at the level they operate at that can take a minute or two. Everyone has a plan until a bear poops in the woods or something.

Paid subscribers will get a list of all of the signed prints coming (or are live at the time you’re reading this? Maybe?) if that’s a thing you’re into. I’m currently planning out the Wave Two launches and there’s some fun picks in there, I feel. I’m biased of course.

Above is a progress shot of next week’s new Seth Rollins painting. It’d been a while since I did anything this loose and it feels wonderful stretching those muscles again. His new persona is one that I can have a lot of fun with visually and I’m really going to lean into that for this piece.

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ICYMI, here's last week's Canvas 2 Canvas episode. Turned out pretty swell in my opinion.

UPCOMING VIDEOS  

• 5/28 - Seth Rollins

• 6/11 - LA Knight. YEAH.

Card subject to change.

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Hundreds of prints and paintings at Schamberger Labs!
Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Signed prints at WWE Auction.
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Instagram
YouTube

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ROCK VS AUSTIN WRESTLING LANDSCAPE

I applied a base coat of manganese blue hue to the background and started building up some values as well as adding white highlights and I’m loving it. I’ve learned with acrylic glazing to get a thinner paint for the best results and you can especially see the results in the top ‘sky’ area and how it kept the expressive values I applied in the prior step but gave it that rich blue.

Next up is to start bringing some other colors in for the floor crowd and defining their features a bit more. I’m super excited for how this is shaping up.

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WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK

I finished reading the massive Top 10 Compendium by Alan Moore, Gene Ha, Zander Cannon and friends last Sunday. It’s a super fun examination of what a city entirely populated by superheroes would be like, and what it would be like to be a cop in that city. It’s a gorgeous twist on the Hill Street Blues concept with tons of gags but still done with a healthy dose of humanity. I read these when they originally came out and it was a blast revisiting them.

I listened to the audiobook for Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane while working this week. Lehane is possibly my favorite novelist and this book is an example of why. It’s a complicated and challenging reinvention of the 70’s vigilante revenger with a single mother in the role, set against the tumult of the Boston school system’s racial integration. It tackles the big issues but keeps it all very personal to the characters and their flaws as people. The audiobook is narrated by Robin Miles who does an outstanding job, going far beyond just reading the book and instead performing it with lush vocalizations.

Katy and I caught up on Yellowjackets Season Two this week and it’s been the favorite show in this house for a couple weeks now. They’re finally answering some spoilery questions I’ve had since the first season, or at least having the characters confront those questions to lead towards answers. I really hope that the third season gets to happen because these mysteries are so damn compelling.

I finished watching Mrs Davis yesterday morning and loved it. The reveal about the Mrs Davis algorithm’s true nature had me laughing uncontrollably. SO worth it. Wings! Expiration date! So good. Betty Gilpin is a force of nature throughout the series.

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Handsome man.

YOU GOOD?  

Korma’s doing better than last week. We’re not out of the woods yet, there’s still some benchmarks Katy and I want to hit before we’re comfortable with his health, but he’s significantly better. Thank you so much to everyone who reached out to pass along their well wishes. He’s a special dude and means so much to us.

Taking care of him was sort of a full time job for us this week, as it should be. We’re lucky to both work from home so that we can give him round-the-clock attention. We joke that this is all an elaborate ploy on his part to get fancy food and all of our focus.

Otherwise the week was filled by the WWE Shop project. We had a handful of prints up for a few days to work out the kinks and it’s going to be cool from a fulfillment perspective once it’s all live. I had to reorganize my physical inventory to work with the new procedures but I can see how helpful this will be as we continue to grow. And we’re definitely going to start growing pretty rapidly over the next year.

Love you more,
Rob

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EXCLUSIVE PAID SUBSCRIBER CONTENT

Paid subscribers this week will get an exclusive 25% off discount code for prints and access to the exclusive chat. PLUS! A list of the signed prints coming to WWE Shop…some time. Soon? Soon. Some time soon. Maybe when you’re reading this. Soon. WE ARE GO FOR PAYWALL.