Since the 1990s, Cal Ripken Jr. has been called baseball’s “Iron Man.” But, decades before Cal, another ballplayer earned that moniker for several feats of endurance that will never be equaled as long as the game is played. […]
Category: New York Giants
Eddie Grant: Memorial Day
Among the 53,402 Americans who died in World War I was the New York Giants beloved third baseman, Eddie Grant. Although he was in his thirties, Grant volunteered for the infantry and was killed in action leading his men into the Argonne Forest in an attempt to rescue the famed “Lost Battalion.” […]
My Process Part 10: Condensing Jake’s life down to 185 words
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 […]
My Process Part 9: Where in the world is Jake Levy
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 […]
My Process Part 8: Digitizing Jake
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 […]
My Process Part 7: Paint it (actually, ink it) Black
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 […]
My Process Part 6: Let the drawing begin!
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 […]
My Process Part 5: Envisioning Jake Levy
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 […]
My Process Part 4: Finding the Visuals
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 […]
My Process Part 3: Jake becomes Jack who becomes Jake again
Armed with the knowledge that I was dealing with a guy playing under two different names, one of which being his given Jewish name, I went back to my library. Fortunately, there has been much written about the history of Jews and baseball. I went for my three go-to volumes: The Big Book of […]