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Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. Try this trick and spin it.

It struck me as funny to do a similar composition in this Orange Cassidy painting as my recent Omega and Okada pieces. Like, both of those are very dramatic and then here’s OC going for a stroll across a vibrant background. Gave me a chuckle.

Hope you dig it!

Card subject to change.

Rob’s Art on ShopAEW
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Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Rob’s prints and shirts at Pro Wrestling Tees
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Rob’s gallery site Schamberger Art
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Bluesky
Cara
YouTube
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Katy’s book Oldest Kansas City

Happy Pride Month! We’re wonderful.

Let’s let that image breathe for a second.

Brian Bolland has been one of my favorite artists since childhood, with his balance of realism and cartooning through a controlled illustrator’s hand. He got his start in his native UK but burst onto the American scene in a big way with Batman: The Killing Joke with writer Alan Moore.

If you’re around my age, you’ve probably seen art from it even if you’re not a comics fan, notably this final panel:

Killing Joke was probably my first exposure to his work even though I read it several years after it came out. Bolland has had a steady career even if it’s not overly prolific due to the obvious amount of care he puts into each piece.

I think the first series where I was regularly getting his work was when he did covers for the excellent Grant Morrison-written The Invisibles. Bolland did a lot of Vertigo work (notably Animal Man) but this was the series where I was like, yeah, I’m going to buy this guy’s work whenever I see it.

And he’s still putting out excellent work, like this recent homage to John Romita Sr and Bob Larkin’s classic cover for the second Superman and Spider-Man crossover. I don’t think he’s done much Marvel work at all (this might actually be the first, based on a cursory search!) so it’s fun seeing his approach to the characters.

I started a new personal piece last week and thought it’d be fun to go over my approach with you. First I applied a monochromatic underpainting using Payne’s Gray to quickly block in the values on the subject’s figure. Learning about this step revolutionized my whole process a few years ago and I feel like I’m still reaping the benefits.

Next I glazed a few colors over everything. You can see how all of those tones are still there, desaturating the color. This means I don’t have to mix any of those colors unless I want to fine-tune things, making it feel more naturalistic and also saving a ton of time.

Then I started adding some more layers in select areas to bring attention to the areas I wanted and making sure that my model Doug’s features are as correct as possible. But again, so much was already worked out right from the beginning so the structure is already all there.

With the figure mostly where I wanted it, I”m now adding the fabric that’s flowing around him. This is the point on this particular piece where I find out if my plan will stand or not. I’ll show you in Sunday’s newsletter if it comes together!

Love you more,
Rob

PS: Trans rights are human rights. Abolish and prosecute ICE.