Among the 200,000 U.S. Army soldiers that stormed ashore on the Philippine island of Leyte in November of 1944 was a 24 year-old staff sergeant named Milt Rosenstein. Just three years earlier he had a spectacular first season in professional ball, winning 20 games, led his league in strikeouts and pitched the Miami Beach Flamingos to the Florida East Coast League Championship. […]
Among the 200,000 U.S. Army soldiers that stormed ashore on the Philippine island of Leyte in November of 1944 was a 24 year-old staff sergeant named Milt Rosenstein. Just three years earlier he had a spectacular first season in professional ball, winning 20 games, led his league in strikeouts and pitched the Miami Beach Flamingos to the Florida East Coast League Championship. […]
Although Mickey Rutner’s entire major league career consisted of only 12 games for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1947, his experience lives on in one of the finest works of baseball fiction, Eliot Asinof’s “Man on Spikes.” […]
Probably the most difficult part of doing my stories and illustration is the write-up that goes on the back of the card. Despite what you might think, it’s really hard to tell a story in 185 words. I believe the thing that makes what I do different than anyone else is that I write […]
Over the years, many people have remarked about the backgrounds I have in my illustrations. I’m happy people notice them because I go out of my way to make sure they compliment the players. I want them to appear comfortable in the world they inhabit. Sometimes you can see a panoramic view of the […]
Because I’ve been doing my baseball card illustrations for over ten years, I have developed a system of sorts. Back in 2010 when I started, I had to not only do the player drawing themselves, but also come up with the whole design of the “card.” There’s many artists out there who repurpose […]
Back in art school I had a drawing professor that most students hated. It wasn’t because he was a bad teacher – on the contrary, he was terrific. At the time I had my first class with him, he was at the pinnacle of his own career, coming off a couple decades as one […]
With all the reference material assembled – images of Jake, uniform references, personal details – I’m ready to start drawing. Ninety-nine percent of the time I already have a good idea in my head of what I want the player’s pose to be. In Jake’s case, I liked the idea that he was both […]
When it comes time to begin the drawing process, I try to make sure I have all the elements in front of me that I will need to make the illustration as accurate as possible. Like I showed you in the previous installment, I begin with any actual facial images of the player that […]
Once I’ve dug up a good amount of research with which to write my story, I begin a parallel search for good visuals to use for my illustration. If I regularly worked on players like Babe Ruth and Stan Musial, this step would be a breeze, but I tend to gravitate towards the more […]