Sketching A Post Out

 It has been a long time since I've made a post about sketch cards. It has been a long time since I have looked for or even bought any. The cards in this post I have been meaning to post about for some time since I have had them for 10-11 years. My criteria for sketch cards is generally first their appearance and that includes the quality of the art work and the price. Just like regular cards I don't like the super high prices that many ask for any card let alone a semi rare art card. Back when I used to hunt for sketch cards a decade ago. Many of them were just that a SKETCH card, usually one of a kind and often they were in just pencil or uncolored black pen & ink. Then some of the artists colored in their work and often they would make print copies to sell so they could keep their original art. I don't mind photocopies if they look OK and if I know upon purchase that they are prints. Anyway that is more than enough talk, time to show the cards. Oh one of these cards I have another sketch card by the same artist whose full name I do not know. In a previous post I mentioned another card by the artist named "Phil" whom I can't make out the last name.

So let me start by showing this second card by the artist "Phil" this is one of two sketch cards I have with Pauley Perrette as her character Abby Sciuto. It is also one of two sketch cards I'm showing that have a gold sticker "sealing" the card as a "Limited Edition Collectors Series". Back in the day I loved getting them for the gold seal to show they were sort of authentic, but if you really think about it, it doesn't make them any more special, as often the seal can be worn or damaged negating the whole specialness of them.

2012? Sketch card NCIS canvas prints Pauley Perrette as Abby Sciuto by Phil #200/250

Next the other "sealed" card from a similar series probably commissioned by the same Ebay seller from the Doctor Who canvas prints series we have Matt Smith as The 11th Doctor floating with his TARDIS by Michael Celona.

2012? Sketch card Doctor Who canvas prints Matt Smith as The Doctor by Michael Celona #246/250

Now the other Abby Sciuto sketch card this time by artist David Coalburn this one seems to be a print and it is numbered to only 25 and is dated 2012.

2012 sketch card Pauley Perrette as Abby Sciuto by David Coalburn #2/25

The final card is another print numbered to 25 by artist David Coalburn this time the subject is Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman.

2012 sketch card Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman by David Coalburn #1/25

Warehouse 13 Myka Sketch Card

One of my favorite TV shows will come to an end later this spring shortly after returning to the Sci-Fi channel (spelled with two "y"s and no "c") for a 5th and final season of only Six episodes. Warehouse 13 a well written adventure series often with witty tongue in cheek humor reminds many of the late 1980s show Friday The 13th: The Series (in recent years renamed "Friday's Curse" to avoid confusion with the horror movies of the same name). One of the characters on Warehouse 13 Myka Bering played by Canadian actress Joanne Kelly fast became one of my faves on the show. So...

Back in November of last year (Thursday 21 November, 2013 to be exact) I had a two card mailday. As many might know by now I keep track of my maildays on my TCC blog. I got this card by sniping on Ebay, in this case I really really wanted the card. I started watching it, and was nervous about it because it was getting some bids and creeping toward my comfortable maximum bid (as is the case with many sketch cards that often "start" at too high a price for me to even consider bidding). About a day or two before the end of the auction it had 6 bids and was at $15.50 many more bids and it would be out of my comfort zone. The Final night I watched it periodically for updates and in the last few minutes kept checking it and refreshing my browser then when it was down into the final minute I bid my max of $35 and for about 40 seconds I was worried another sniper would come by, the ones that use the sniping software and don't have to watch the auction at all because their program bids at the last second or two. Fortunately for me I had the winning bid. The 7th bid at $21.50. I thought the shipping had been set to $3.50 but it showed up as Free Shipping in "My Ebay". I was really glad I won the auction for this beautiful sketch of a beautiful woman.

The Artist Javier Gonzalez of Blackhilt Studios I think was also the seller under the Ebay handle Blackhilt Studios. The card was listed as an ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals) sketch card.

 2013 Blackhilt Studios Sketch Card by Javier Gonzalez

Joanne Kelly as Myka Bering (Warehouse 13)

(Front and Back)

Mistress of Horror Sketch Set

On Friday 10 Feb 2012 I got my 5 card set of Elvira Sketch Cards for $3.99 FREE Shipping. The artist is Matthew Parmenter Ebay ID Monster-Art-World in Ohio. He seems to specialize in Horror.

The cards in in full color and are on photo stock/quality paper, the backs are clean and blank. The toploaders were taped at the top and two of them held two "cards" back to back. For all I know this guy could be just scanning his sketches and printing onto 2.5 x 3.5 photo stock cards in huge numbers. I don't care though I got this set because I really loved the look and the subject matter. When I first saw the auction for them there were only two maybe three of them I was really excited about now its more like 4 out of the 5.

Some internet searching lead me to some of the promo pictures that were used as a model for the sketches. This site snarkerati was a good source for some of them. When possible I have shown the original photo then the sketch, of course the image of her with her hands/nails up to her face in shock is a standard pose for Ms. Peterson so it might not be an exact match.

 

 

Holy Hawaii Batman!

I got two more sketch cards one on Wednesday 02 February 2012 and one the following day. These cost a bit more than the pencil sketch cards I had mentioned before. First up is a sketch of DC Comic Heroine Batgirl on her Batcycle.

 

This card is a pencil sketch with pen & ink with gray shading, watercolor? The back is signed by the artist Lyle Pollard and dated "2k'12" it has ink bleed-through from the ink on the front.

I like his style but I have a problem with some of his faces, there were other cards I saw where I liked the subject but there was something about how he did the face that didn't sit with me well.

 After studying this particular sketch I noticed that Batgirl has a scrawny pencil-neck. I also noticed that her windblown hair seems to be too high behind her, maybe her pony tail is high and that is the loose hair below the hairband.Those are my only complaints about this sketch. I got it from Ebay for $14.99 w/Free Shipping.

 Next up we have a card from an "upcoming designer of non-sports trading cards" of the Hawaii Five-0 Character Kono Kalakaua played by Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica).

 It is a pencil sketch colored with what looks like watercolor. The artist uses thin paper stock that is textured to simulate canvas. The back is actually a second piece of paper stock that has a certificate and is serial numbered to 250. Each of this artist's print runs is numbered to 250. It is sealed in a toploader (no penny sleeve though). I got this one for $12.99 w/ $1.95 shipping. This one is numbered 224/250.

 At first I thought and assumed (dangerous to do I know) that the seller was the artist his Ebay ID is vinestreetstuff. It doesn't look like he is the artist as the guy has a couple of other artist's work for sale. One of the artists this guy sells cards of is named Michael Celona, but this signature doesn't match the one for him. The signature on the back looks like it starts with a "P" maybe "Phil"?

It seems that sketch artists don't put their cards in a penny sleeve before putting them in the toploader. At least most have the sense to use toploaders and not those silly "card savers". (see my post on My Cal Ripken RC) The card saver is better than nothing, unfortunately a lot of card sellers and card collectors will put cards in them and ship them in a thin envelope (bad) or a PWE (worse). They are usually OK if put in a bubble mailer or a more substantial mailer or box. Cardsavers are OK for storage and display, but not for shipping.

Sexy Comic Villain Sketch Cards

Back on December 26th last year (2011) from Ebay I got two pencil sketched cards from the artist, Mark Spears. I got them for $6 (with $2 shipping) One is of Catwoman the other is Black Cat from SpiderMan. They are true original sketch cards and nothing is on the back. These were from the artist cards that are not associated with any series. These two are truly 1/1s since they are directly from the artist. Sketch cards from the big companies might not necessarily be truly 1/1s those could be photocopies of a sketch.

On the subject of sketch cards I am so annoyed at both the sellers for setting ridiculous prices and for the collectors for paying those prices. A nicely drawn picture on a card (pencil sketch or B&W inked, or Full Color) on Ebay usually start at a ridiculous price of anywhere from about $40 to $60 starting bid (or sometimes Buy it Now) price sometimes they even start at $100 or more. None of them are worth that much to me, and many of them are poorly drawn but still start at some stupid outrageous price.

Personally I try not to spend more than $20 on ANY trading card with $30 being my ceiling. I think the most I have ever spent on an individual card is $30 probably a vintage card or an autograph card.

 When I saw these two cards my first thought was how well drawn they were then when I saw they had really cheap (compared to the average sketch card price on FEEBAY) I had to grab them up. One was only 99¢ (Catwoman) the other (Black Cat) was $4.99.

Catwoman Sketch Card by Mark Spears 2011

Black Cat Sketch Card by Mark Spears 2011

On the Black Cat card I get a kick out of Spidey peaking his head in the doorway. I like Mark's work and will look for stuff from him in the future.