Empire Strikes Back - Return Cards

Here are my 6 returns. Just drop me a line if you're interested. Leia already sold. Thanks for looking!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Two Sketch Cards

I'm happy to announce that I was asked to do a second set of Star Wars cards for Topps. I'm also happy to announce that I got them done in time. It was touch and go for a while because I didn't get them until a week ago. Luckily I asked in advance if I could do 50 instead of 100 because getting them so late, I don't think I would've finished them all. Either that or I wouldn't have ever slept. Oh, who am I kidding, I wouldn't have slept.

This set is for The Clone Wars Season Two. Unfortunately, I never saw Season Two, or Season One for that matter. I saw the movie and I got through disk one of Season One by the time I got the blanks (I'm now through disk two). It's a pretty cool show, can't wait to catch up before Season Three starts. I also had a great reference book to help me with some of the characters I was unfamiliar with ... The Star Wars The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia very cool book and cheap too.

So, here are all my cards, I hope you like them. I wish I had more time to work on them. Plus, my day job, Dallas Comic Con, my kid's birthday, family in town, getting sick and other freelance work really sucked a lot of my time. But, I'm happy with them and I met my goal of doing them all in color. I'm hoping to get back the first row as my Artist Return Cards.

Sketch Card Commissions

Here are a couple of commissioned sketch cards I just finished. It was cool to draw two characters I've never tackled before. Darth Talon and Magdalena.

The Last Batch of Empire Strikes Back Sketch Cards

Here are the remaining cards I did for Topps. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. I'm just happy to be in the set. Even if I never get into another one, I'm psyched to have done this collection. Hope you like them. Now to start those P'ups Sketch Cards for 5finity.

Empire Strikes Back Sketch Cards - Second Batch

Here are the next 41 cards I completed. Trying to do a lot of Boba Fetts. Because he's cool and all. Hope you like them.

Empire Strikes Back Sketch Cards - First Batch

Here are the first twenty cards I did over the weekend, got them approved this morning. I did fully finished images and color on these. I'd like to be able to plow though the entire 106 doing them this way, but as the deadline approaches, I may hit a patch of black and whites or more "sketch" style ones in order to finish on time. We'll see. As always, I hope you like them.

Empire Strikes Back Reference Material

Here's a look at all the Empire Strikes Back reference materials I've been using to work on the sketch cards. The DVD of the movie, of course. The New Essential Guide to Characters that I picked up at Half Price Books the other day. My original 1980 copy of the official book of the film. My original 1980 copy of the Marvel Comics official adaption of the film. My original 1980 copy of the storybook of the film. My original 1980 trading cards, also produced by Topps. I think I have about 150 of those. Too much? Maybe. It does speak volumes about how much I was into this as a kid. Anyway, I did 20 full color cards this weekend. Once (if) I get them approved, I'll post them here.

The Empire Strikes Back 3D Trading Cards

I'm really excited to announce that I will be illustrating 100 sketch cards for the upcoming Empire Strikes Back 3D Trading Cards set from Topps. As I mentioned in my post about my 2010 goals, not only did I want to get into some sketch card sets (did that with the Dead@17 set) but I specifically wanted to get into an officially-licensed DC, Marvel or Star Wars set. And I'm happy to say that I can check that off my list.

I just received my blanks from Topps and now the work begins. Most people that come to this blog probably already know about the whole sketch card scene, but if you don't, it works like this. The packs contain regular cards that are mass produced, like baseball cards, but they're all scenes from ESB. The cards in this set in are "widescreen", so they're longer than the typical trading card and they are also 3D. But randomly inserted into the packs are one of a kind original sketch cards done by a bunch of different artists. So I'll physically draw on a blank card, they'll insert it into a pack and some collector will get an original sketch that I did. Pretty cool.

For a guy who grew up with both Topps and Star Wars as a big part of his life, this is a little dream come true. Obviously, Star Wars was huge for any kid my age, but I was also so into Topps baseball and football cards it was crazy. I still have full Yankees team sets from 1978 through 1980, as you can see here. I'm psyched to work on these and I hope I can create some cards that Star Wars fans will really want to collect. Once I get a few of them approved, I can post them here, so stay tuned.

Big thanks to Brent Schoonover.

ETA: Actually I'll be doing 106 cards. I get 6 of them back as "Artist Return" cards.

Dallas Comic Con Aftermath

I had a great time at the Dallas Comic Con this past weekend. Ben and Mark really outdid themselves. I hope this con fills the void left by Wizard World Texas, I think it eventually could. The show was packed and I drew non-stop on Saturday, it was crazy, the busiest I've ever been. I believe the final tally was ... 21 Pre-Drawn Sketch Cards, 6 New Sketch Cards, 4 Pre-Drawn Color Sketches, 14 New Color Sketches, 8 New BW Sketches, 1 Shades TPB, 3 Prints.

Obviously, the Sketch Cards were a big hit since I sold almost half of them. I'm definitely gonna keep doing them, I think it's an affordable way to get a full color original piece of art. I'm on a GI Joe kick right now, so I've been doing Dr. Mindbender, Major Bludd, Firefly, Torch, Lady Jaye, Spirit, Eels, Tomax, Xamot, Cobra Commander (hooded) and more. I also need to replace my Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes and Baroness that sold at the show. I'll also be working on some Star Wars cards too.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, I appreciate it. Here are some of the pieces I did during the show...

SciFi Expo Wrap Up

Big thanks to everyone who stopped by my table at the SciFi Expo this past weekend. I had a great time and did a bunch of drawings. Thanks to Mark and Ben for having me.

Big Wizard World Thanks!

Thanks to everyone that stopped by my table at Wizard World this year. I didn't think I would have a big show for some reason and it turned out to be one of my busiest yet. I think I did aroud 30 drawings over the 13 or so hours I was there.

Here is a look at some of the drawings I did. Hope you like them...

Sci-Fi Expo Wrap-up

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table at the Sci-Fi Expo this past weekend. As always I met a bunch of great people and did a bunch of drawings. This time I actually did what I've always said I would do. That is take photos of the drawings I did. I didn't get them all but I got some of them. So click on the image and check 'em out!