During the second week of November 2023, I got an email from Matt Dunford at Upper Deck inviting me to take part in producing original sketch cards for the new Fleer Scooby-Doo trading card set that Upper Deck was creating.
I would be creating original hand-drawn artwork for 15 sketch cards and two Artist Proof cards. I certainly knew what sketch cards were, but I requested some samples from Matt just to make sure we were on the same page. Matt was kind enough to send me some samples of some Marvel sketch cards that someone had done.
I don't know how many artists were invited to take part (I never asked for some reason), but I said yes thinking it would be fun. In the end, it was fun and I'm quite proud of the final work! You can click on the pics to see the bigger versions!
This blog post is about the art process of creating them.
Upper Deck emailed me the long contracts and I signed them and sent them back in December. The final details of the card set and the art guidelines were still being finalized and it wouldn't be till February when you could actually start drawing. No problem. The final deadline to have them all done was on May 11, 2024.
In early February 2024, I received my Upper Deck sketch cards in the mail! They were double-boxed and packed extremely well to protect them, and they came with a return shipping label. I put them aside and waited for the art guidelines to be released. At the end of the month, we were emailed the final specs for what you could and couldn't draw.
I'm glad I waited to get the finalized list as some of the initial guidelines had changed. Originally, the list of what you could draw went up to 1998 or so. You were now ONLY allowed to draw any Scooby-Doo characters that appeared from the 1969-1982 animated television series that were on the list.
You would ONLY be paid for the sketch cards that got approved. If you screwed up, or tried to sneak something in you weren't supposed to, you wouldn't get paid for those cards. They had a short list of stuff you definitely could NOT do: sex, drugs, no famous guest stars, no modern or live-action characters, etc., etc. All of the cards had to be PG-rated. All this is a no-brainer as you'd be losing money on any rejected cards if you were trying to be a wiseguy.
The main issue for me was not screwing up when you were creating them. You had to think and plan out everything before you committed to doing it. I must admit I was highly anxious in doing them as you get used to the mighty "undo" button. Working digitally, you can do several versions of a final piece with different overlays and color changes. With a single, blank trading card sitting in front of you, the pressure was truly on. Also, being an artist, you wanted to show up everyone else who got invited to create them! I wanted mine to "pop" and stand out from anyone else, so I took it all seriously.
First and foremost on my mind was what a Scooby-Doo fan would want to see on a sketch card. You only had so much room to draw so my short list of must-haves were:
- Every card MUST have Scooby-Doo! I didn't think anyone would want a card without him on it. He is the star of the show!
- I think a true Scooby fan wants a scene or scenario that they will recall from Scooby history. While I might exaggerate or play with some designs, they will be representative of a given episode, which leads to...
- ALL of my cards would be focused on classic episodes from the 1969-1970 seasons as they are the most iconic.
- I'm going to focus on the three most popular main characters: Scooby, Shaggy, and Daphne. Sorry to Fred and Velma fans, but Daphne is the MOST requested character I get asked to sketch at a comic convention! I'll leave it to you to figure out why...
Out of the 17 cards I had to draw, there is one featuring a generic haunted house. It's just a general trope of the Scooby Universe, and I simply wanted to draw a haunted house. What can I tell you...I like haunted houses and they're fun to draw! I had a vision of it in my head and the original vision had the whole gang in front of it. I printed out a trading card border on copy paper and tried it, but it simply didn't work trying to cram all five members of Mystery Inc. on it, so I focused on just Shaggy and Scooby.
The following weeks I worked out ideas and concepts on paper to see if they would work on a trading card. Then I had to go check the status of my color markers.
GETTING MY OLD MARKERS SORTED
First, I'd like to note that when I was cleaning my studio in the middle of 2023, I was considering throwing out my magic markers! No kidding! I wasn't using them and they were just taking up space. For some reason, I decided to keep them all. One of life's moments that could have turned out quite differently if I threw them out. I don't know where I would have been if I had to start from scratch as markers these days can cost a fortune! In total, I spent $75 on fresh new markers to do these cards.
Once I got ideas for what I was going to draw, I then pulled out all my markers and tested each and every one on paper to see if they still worked. I have a large amount of Prismacolor markers in my studio and they don't even make them anymore! Quite a few were dried out (or dead) and I threw them in the trash, but most were still good and worked great! What luck! Organizing and testing took some time to do. I started separating colors for characters and any colors that I thought would be suited for coloring monsters or doing backgrounds.
Once I separated the markers I had, I made notes on which colors would needed. I would use just three tones for coloring:
- Rim Light
- Base Coat
- Shading
PENCILING & INKING THE CARDS
Once I had my ideas worked out, I drew all the cards with a Koh-I-Nor lead holder with refillable pencil lead that I kept super sharp for those tiny details. I used an HB lead at first but then switched to a lighter lead to make it easier to erase later on.
There's one with Scooby and a ghost I should mention. I didn't want to "ink" the ghost as I wanted it to be done with color to make him look more "ghostly," so left I him in blue pencil as a guide to go by. Overall, I found that drawing on trading cards demanded a higher level of focus. I had done sketch cards at comic conventions before but those were tossed off quick as a looser sketch as a thank you.
Once I had my cards all drawn, I then inked them with Micron Pens which have black archival ink. I used these sizes: 005, 01, 03, and 08. This took time as you couldn't make mistakes and use Pro White to fix something. You got one shot to do it right! I inked about 3-4 cards each day. Here are my final inks of my cards!
GETTING NEW MARKERS!
It was another rude awakening going into an "art" store (those that are still around) and looking for new magic markers. It's a Copic world for sure... and they're expensive! I settled for a brand I found at Michaels Arts & Crafts Store called Artist's Loft, which suited my work fine! I spent quite some time at two Michaels locations trying them out and seeing how they worked on paper scraps. In the end, they're a quality marker and are $3 cheaper! They also mix well with Copic markers as I do have some Copics here.
Trying to find a proper Scooby-Doo "brown" has haunted me for decades! It's hard to match and then you have to see how it saturates into the paper you are using. I couldn't risk testing the colors on any trading cards as they only give you the ones allotted to you.
COLORING THE SKETCH CARDS!
This took a lot of time and thought. The first card took me an hour to color. It was the one with the old gypsy woman. My kitchen table was a messy battle zone and the natural light that poured in helped working on such a small medium! Trading cards are rough on the eyes! I colored 3-4 cards a day as I didn't want to rush it. You also had to be careful that the markers didn't bleed through the cards too much! I used a white colored pencil for highlights. When each card was finished, I turned it over and signed it on the back with a black Sharpie! Here are my final cards!
SNOWSTORM ANXIETY!
I saved the two cards with the Snow Ghost for last! I had to create the snowstorm effect. I went back to the art store and got a white paint brush pen to add snowflakes, but I first had to create the "storm," which I used a damp sponge dipped in some diluted Pro White paint.
I took black construction paper and tested the sponges to make sure this was even going to work. I wanted it to look like there was wind blowing the snow. I had the sketch cards sitting off to the side. I had to be ready to go when I was ready. Talk about pressure! I had one shot at this!
I placed one sketch card on a fresh piece of black construction paper and then tested the sponges again it after dabbing them with fresh paint.
Breathe in... Exhale... Breathe in... Exhale.
Ready... set........ Go!
Yes, all this drama actually happened.
I then took the white paint brush pen and added some snowflakes. When both cards were dry, I flipped them over and signed them. They look amazing and I'm really pleased with them!
SCANNING AND MAILING THEM OUT!
Once the cards were done, I looked them over to see if I wanted to make any final tweaks. Then I scanned them at 600dpi into my computer so I had them for my archives. I laid them out with the episode titles (photo below) and sent the off to Matt at Upper Deck. He loved them and flattered me with high praise! I needed it. He told me to mail the physical cards out and email a set to production to so they can send to Warner Bros for approval.
I packed them back into the box they sent me and ran it to the FedEx (Kinko's) office store to get them out! This was two days before the deadline of May 11, 2024! I had them done and on time!
THEN, THE WAITING BEGAN...
It was from May 11, 2024 to February 24, 2025... That’s exactly 9 months and 2 weeks that they sat in limbo at Warner Bros. No word, no nothing, and no pay until approvals.
This is no blame cast on Upper Deck, but this is just the concerning state of things in general with IP license holders. Upper Deck said they were a new vendor with Warner Bros and it takes a bit longer to get in the system, but seriously what the hell? Upper Deck is a not an unknown entity or some new company that's fresh on the scene.
Warner Bros, Disney, etc. are all in the same boat right now. I hesitate in calling the boat the Titanic. It now takes months for approvals when they used to take two weeks. This is a concern for all freelancers and it's happening far too often these days. I talked about this in my interview with ScoobySnax (Go read my previous post!). It was never like this before and these long, extended wait times are not helping freelancers or the companies that buy IP licenses.
Be that as it may, on February 24, 2025, I got an email that ALL my cards were approved!
There will be 15 one-of-a-kind sketch cards out there in the wild. They were randomly placed in packs of the Scooby-Doo cards that some lucky person will get. I was excited!
I have two Artist Proof cards here in my studio and I'll be selling them on eBay! I have a Snow Ghost one and I have a cute one of Scooby and Daphne together. That one will sell for sure! I told you Daphne was popular. You were paying attention, weren't you?
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