Finally, I'm having a contest.

So I wanted to do a cool contest post commemorating my 1 year anniversary of card blogging. Like with most things that I do I didn't really have a chance to do it right, so I didn't do it at all.
Like most of you I have a job, friends, social life and other interests outside of blogging and card collecting. Those outside forces kept me from focusing on doing the contest in the right way.

One big problem I had with hosting a contest was coming up with something original. A lot of contests on the blogs consist of making a comment, pimping the contest on the contestants blog and/or following the host's blog.

Other contest are pretty creative and ask for entrants to answer a trivia question or give their opinions of HOF ballots, etc.

I think all of those ideas are great, but I was trying to do something different. So finally I gave up and I decided to give in and make my contest a combination of all of those ideas. That's sort of original in a plagiarist sort of way, right?

The only obvious change that I made was that I wanted the contest to not just be all about me, I wanted some info on the other bloggers out there. One of the requirements of the contest is to tell me about your collecting.


So if you're game here's the rules and regulations:

1. Post a comment on this blog post stating what's your most favorite collecting memory. It could be blogging, your first online trade. A trade you completed when you were younger. Pulling your favorite player from a pack of cards for the first time or just a random memory. It seems pretty broad and that's what I like about it; it doesn't have to be about any collection or part of your collection specifically, just a specific memory you have of collecting. (Hopefully a good memory).

If you've already blogged about this, then just leave a link to your blog post in the comment section below. It doesn't have to be really detailed either.

2. Mention this contest on your blog.

Now for the good part: the prizes. It occurred to me after I won one of the prizes in Big D's contest a month ago that I could do something similar. I really like using Photoshop, but I pretty much suck at it. So I thought that instead of doing a custom card that way, I would do a custom sketch card instead. Plus, their aint' no way I'm going to be able to do as good a job as some of the bloggers out there with their cool custom cards.


I'm not a great artist, but I can do okay sometimes with likenesses.

It's actually a little selfish of me to do a contest like this as I would like the opportunity to practice my art. I can't guarantee a perfect likeness of the player/person that you want me to sketch, but I'll do my best. Doing a specific person for the winners will be sort of like a school assignment and will force me to do something or someone that I ordinarily wouldn't draw.

Like in Big D's contest I'm going to have 5 winners. I think contests with multiple winners are the best. If there weren't contests with multiple winners I would have never won anything. The only negative to having multiple winners is that maybe their is only one or two entrants. That would be a little depressing!!

So if you're interested please check it out.

I'll leave the contest open until I think they're enough entrants.

Then I'll randomize to find the five winners and then the winners can tell me what they would like sketched as a prize. They will all receive a sketch card of a player/person of their choosing as well as some random packs of current and past products. I'm not sure exactly what I'll include, but I'll try to round up some cards from their favorite team(s) as well as the custom sketch card and the packs.

Here's some examples of my drawing prowess. Not the best examples, but at least an indication of my style.

I'll start with the most recent drawing.

I wanted to do a Roberto Clemente drawing for a while now. I only have one card of his; the 1989 Pacific card shown below.



You can see how I tried a few different sketches before coming up with the final drawing. The sketch in the bottom right makes Clemente look a little bit like a hobo.


The finished product.

Here he is without the cropping. You can see a faint pencil line where I drew the border. I always draw outside the lines and then crop later. I've never tried to draw on a pre-cropped card. That will be interesting to try sometime when I'm more comfortable doing these types of cards.



The card above is an example of a Roberto gone wrong. I like it, but it ain't him. It sort of looks like what he might look like if he had a chance to age.




Here are a few studies of David Wright.

This is me trying to do a somewhat realistic portrait of him.


.. and this is me going a little more cartoony with his facial features trying to capture something that looks like him.

And finally a colorized version of him swinging a bat. Still a little off in the face, but oh well.

I'm not a heavily political guy, but I like to draw people in the public eye from time to time.




I thought that Glenn Beck would be easier to draw what with his over the top weirdness. I had to try and do a somewhat subdued drawing of him just to get the shape of his face right. It's still a work in progress.

I think the drawing above sort of captures his features a little bit better, but still not where I want it.
Larry King.


This is supposed to be Bill Murray. Seems like an easy guy to draw, but I could never get it quite right.



This is the only card that I've done so far in watercolor. I need to do more of these. I like the look, but it takes a little more effort. I took this from the scene in Shaun of the Dead where all the zombies were attacking Shaun in front of the Winchester bar. I really regret not drawing the zombie hands in the foreground attacking him.




Some random Office workers. I don't know where my Jim sketch ran off to, but here are some of the cast from the show. I'm not sure why Meredith is in color, I guess I was trying to figure out her hair color?

Alright, so their you go. Don't laugh too hard at my crappy artwork.