How did you get into drawing sketch cards?
About 5 years ago I was contacted by Steven Frank and he was doing a fund raising event for the March of Dimes. His idea was to have artists do sketches on these 4 x 6 cards that were imprinted by the March of Dimes. He asked me to do a couple, which I was more than happy to do. The fund raiser was very successful I guess. From there I got a few more inquiries from other organizations to do sketch cards on the standard 2.5 x 3.5 format. Then Steve started 5finity and asked me to participate in a couple of their projects. Since then I have always been doing something with sketch cards. Even if it’s creating my own, and selling them on eBay.

What is your favorite subject to draw?
Superheroes. But I don’t get asked all that often to draw a sketch card of them. Somehow most requests for sketch cards are for boobs and butts! LOL. And can I really complain that I get to draw those?

 

What is your favorite character to draw?
Whatever someone has asked me to do next. HA! There are so many. Probably towards the top of the list are Power Girl, Supergirl, The Hulk.

Do you prefer black & white sketches or color sketches?
Color. As an Artist, I feel you can convey so much more depth and emotion using color. Black and white can be effective when used here and there. But for me when it comes to sketch cards, color is better.

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?
Right now I am using any and all markers that will get the job done for a specific image. I use Prismacolor and Copic markers. I also have a couple Faber-Castell brush markers I will pull out every now and then too. Finishing touches could be Faber-Castell colored pencils and white gouache.



Who is your favorite sketch card artist?
Wow. There are so many of them. I know I am going to leave someone off this list and piss them off (If that is you, please accept my humble apologies!). How about Jim Kyle, Meghan Hetrick, Bill McKay, Axebone, Amy Clarke. The list goes on and on.

What are you currently working on?
I just completed cards for 5finity Bill Tucci’s Shi collection. I am currently working on Ken Galan’s Contemporary Pin-ups. And after that is a project for Bad Axe studios next card collection.

Has your career as an artist benefited from doing sketch card work?
Sure. One sketch card project can lead to another. Which is wonderful. I am always so grateful to be approached to participate on a sketch card project. But if you are asking do sketch cards lead to other type of artistic work? Then the answer is not really. When someone sees one of my sketch cards, it leads them to ask about doing more cards. It never leads to asking about doing full comic pages or a large commission piece. They are just very different disciplines and I am finding out they are like parallel universes and rarely do they collide into one another.



Do you collect trading cards for yourself?
Nope.

Do you have a website / blog / online presence where readers can find more information about you?
My website is www.artofm2.com
My deviantArt page is http://mmunshaw.deviantart.com
And I am on Twitter at @mmunshaw

How did you get into drawing sketch cards?
I have been a freelance illustrator since the late 90’s, working for pretty much every different type of client you can imagine - from the very big corporations to very small independent publishers, in nearly every genre and style. In May of 2010 and was suddenly laid off from my full time staff illustrator position for a local children’s book publisher, and the situation was looking grim for a while. So I decided to get back to basics, and started drawing for the pure fun of it - drawing things that I WANTED to draw, for a change. So I began to spend a lot of time down at my local comic shop- Comic Connection Oakville -  just drawing comic book characters for fun. A  great bunch of guys work there, and they really liked my work. My wife had picked up a pack of blank art cards for me to try out, so  I started to drawing on them for fun. The guys at the comic shop suggested that I submit my stuff to some of the different nonsport card companies, and my work was met with a good response. Before I knew it, I was working again.

What is your favorite subject to draw?
I love drawing comic book and fantasy stuff. Monsters are my first love, dating back to my childhood, so I find all of that kind of stuff really fun to draw. Dragons, werewolves, giants, that sort of thing.

What is your favorite character to draw?
That’s a tough one, there are so many. The Thing is amy all time favorite character, but I don’t feel like I ever get him quite ‘right’ when I draw him, so he remains my eternal challenge, my white whale. I guess the character I have drawn the most is Iron Fist. He is great fun- simple, striking costume and he’s fun draw in any pose, really dynamic guy. I could also draw Conan or Usagi Yojimbo all day long and never get bored.



Do you prefer black & white sketches or color sketches?
I much prefer to work in black and white, with washes of grey, but most card companies prefer color work, so that is what they get from me.

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?
I usually pencil lightly with a 2H pencil first, then get out my brushes and work in India ink and wash, water color, and sometimes markers (Pitt, Chartpak, COPIC) to get really intense pure colors.

Who is your favorite sketch card artist?
There are so many great ones out there it is hard to pick. Cat Staggs is brilliant. I also like Jim Kyle’s work.



What are you currently working on?
A bazillion things. I have a couple of top secret comic book projects in the works, a pile of private commissions on my desk, some pinups to do for some of my favorite comic books, and I’m working away at a big mural for a local Japanese restaurant. Heh, I’m also a part time custodian.

Has your career as an artist benefited from doing sketch card work?
I believe so, yes. Working with such limited dimensions forces me to get creative in how I use that space, and really tightens up my small brushwork skills. The internet exposure after a new sketch card set launches is also pretty cool, and usually gathers me a bit more work.



Do you collect trading cards for yourself?
I wish I could, but my available funds are quite limited, and any extra I have left after bills and whatnot goes towards buying the few comics books I read each month. I’d love to collect some sketch cards though- so many great artists out there.

Do you have a website / blog / online presence where readers can find more information about you?
I have a web gallery displaying my sketchcards/sketch covers, illustrations and commissions- www.mikerooth.com

I will have a blog (one day!) but until then anyone interested in learning more about me or checking out my artwork can follow me on twitter, where I post my sketches and any new artwork I’m doing nearly every day.
https://twitter.com/#!/uncouthRooth

Better late then never… I took this interview with Craig Yeung back in june 2011. Lost it, found it… and here it finally is!

How did you get into drawing sketch cards?
My first introduction to sketch cards was when a collector approached me at a con and asked for a sketch of Rogue on one of these tiny cards (Cough Elaine Cough). At the time it was more a one off, but then there were more requests at cons for sketch cards so i started to look more into it and submitted samples to Rittenhouse Archives who subsequently offered me a chance to work on their Xmen Archives set.

What is your favorite subject to draw?
I enjoy drawing female characters.

What is your favorite character to draw?
I’ve drawn quite a few Black Widows. I think it’s one of my favorite characters in comics.

Do you prefer black & white sketches or color sketches?
I prefer to do mostly tonal work (black and white), but have gotten used to coloring now on the smaller cards as well.

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?
My cards are usually a mix of graphite, watercolors and gouache.

Who is your favorite sketch card artist?
There are many talented sketch card artists out there, but I like the Pernas, they are cool peeps.

What are you currently working on?
I’m working on an upcoming Rittenhouse set as well as Axebone’s Dungeon Dolls set. I have also finished some cards for Vampirella from Breygent which should be coming out shortly. You can also catch my inkwork on various comics coming out. =D.

Has your career as an artist benefited from doing sketch card work?
It has definitely exposed me to a whole new fan/collector base aside from comic work. I enjoy working one on one with a lot of the sketchcard collectors.

Do you collect trading cards for yourself?
I used to collect back in the 90s during the boom, mostly hockey cards. Today not so much. I have started a small collection of Underworld sketchcards though hehe.

Do you have a website / blog / online presence where readers can find more information about you?
You can find more of my work at http://csyeung1.blogspot.com/ , also at http://csyeung.deviantart.com/ where i dump a lot of my newest artwork. And you can follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/csyeung

How did you get into drawing sketch cards?
I got into drawing sketch cards after meeting Jon Hughes at a comics and toy show in Houston and he introduced me to them.

What is your favorite subject to draw?
I really dig superheros obviously lol , and I am dipping into the vintage type style pinups as well.

What is your favorite character to draw?
I really enjoy drawing the HUlk because he represents a huge challenge to me visually and a good drawing of him is a huge pay off lol

Do you prefer black & white sketches or color sketches?
It al depends on what I am trying to convey in the piece… but I do enjoy color, it pops the picture!

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?
I love me some lead holders with a harder lead, pentel brush tip and pentel stylo for inking and mixed prismas and copics or the colors. 

Who is your favorite sketch card artist?
HMMM wow what a huge and hard to answer question lol…. everyone brings something unique and awesome to the table… but if I had to pick just one, itd be Jim Kyle, followed closely by Gary Kezele, Charles Hall, Lak Lim,Joshua Flower, Melike Acar and the list just goes on and on

What are you currently working on?
I am currently working the upcoming Avengers set(s) and a few projects from Capstone Comics as well as mine and Patrick Yarbroughs own web comic S.S.D.D.

Has your career as an artist benefited from doing sketch card work?
I believe it has benefitted me greatly and defeinitely expoed to an audience I might not have been able to reach if not for an appreciation for what sketch cards are, which is a moment in comic time and a great way for collectors to score original art! 

Do you collect trading cards for yourself?
I do, I buy the Rittenhouse sets and I have a Joker collection I have been building in trades and purchases from other sketch card artists.

Do you have a website / blog / online presence where readers can find more information about you?
Of course I do… you can check me out and hit me up at the following:

www.christopherforeman.com
chris-foreman.deviantart.com

And of course, I have an ebay store here:
http://stores.ebay.com/The-Art-of-Chris-Foreman?_rdc=1

Thanks guys and dolls and see you at the cons!!!

How did you get into drawing sketch cards?
The first time I heard about sketch cards it was in the Otis Frampton blog. He had lots of videos with the process of his cards and I thought: “Hey, I can do this!”. But I had no idea of how to start. So I began to investigate about that business, and that took me to the Scoundrel forum where I read tons of threads to learn about the artists, companies, how to submit my work, and all that. Then I started a thread to show my work. The same I submitted to the companies. Months passed waiting for my first project and nobody called me. Finally, when I was about to give up, I read a comment by Mark Slater in his Facebook page about the Cult-Stuff company. I had nothing to loose so I submitted them a few samples. And the same day I recieve the offer to work in the sets they were preparing.

What is your favorite subject to draw?
I like characters of epic fantasy as Conan or Red Sonja and Nordic mythology.

What is your favorite character to draw?
Thor.

Do you prefer black & white sketches or color sketches?
To draw I prefer color. To buy I don’t mind if the sketch is in b/w or color.

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?
I work mainly with markers mixed with color pencils to get the colors I don’t have in markers. Also I use white ink for bright effects. I can work with acrylics and watercolors too, but aren’t materials I use the most.

Who is your favorite sketch card artist?
I’ve got lots of them: Otis Frampton, Mark Slater, Katie Cook, Hanie Mohd, Melike Akar… but the one I like the most is Jason Keith Phillips (Mayonnaise & Bread). His work is awesome. He’s a very talented artist. Love his style.

What are you currently working on?
I am doing The Avengers and Doctor Who for Strictly Ink. And I will do two sets for their new company Unstoppable Cards.

Has your career as an artist benefited from doing sketch card work?
Absolutely, because before sketch cards I never had anything published. And since I never received any art education, the contact with other artists makes me to improve my skills learning from them.

Do you collect trading cards for yourself?
I’ve got a little collection of sketch cards, and I hope that it grows in the future.

Do you have a website / blog / online presence where readers can find more information about you?
They can go to my Deviantart page: http://reznorix.deviantart.com/ and can buy sketches and commissions in my online store: http://reznorix.ecrater.com/

How did you get into drawing sketch cards?
A friend of mine, that was already working with sketchcards for some time, invited me for a test. I didn’t know much about the whole thing, but I sent the drawings anyway and I were aproved. My first set was “Women of Marvel”.

What is your favorite subject to draw?
When it comes to cards, it’s comics’ super heroes. I like drawing specially portraits related to music and cinema. I always have fun with everything.

What is your favorite character to draw?
I don’t have any favourite carachter to draw. I think I have more facility to draw women. Venom is a character that I always love the results. I also enjoy any carachter of mutant universe.

Do you prefer black & white sketches or color sketches?
I prefer black and white. On how I will use the white spaces and what I will fill with shadows. My lines have a lot more strenght this way.

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?
Graphite and charcoal. Watercolour and acrylic paint to colour. My 0.5 propelling pencil with 2b graphite… this is what I need the most.

Who is your favorite sketch card artist?
It’s hard to mention names… I appreciate my friends’, Edde Wagner, Eduardo Ferrara and Alex Magno, works. They are always inspiring.

What are you currently working on?
I’m working on a new set for Marvel (I want this one to be the best). I conciliate this with my freelancer illustrator jobs… editorial and didatic works.

Has your career as an artist benefited from doing sketch card work?
Since I started doing sketchcards, my biggest pleasure is the proximity with the fans. They become friends and also order comissions.

Do you collect trading cards for yourself?
I don’t  collect cards. I think when you’re married with two children, it’s very hard to collect anything.

Do you have a website / blog / online presence where readers can find more information about you?
Gallery/Portfolio: http://tomagaleria.blogspot.com/
Blog: http://andretoma.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andre_toma/
Facebook: http://pt-br.facebook.com/people/Andr%C3%A9-Shitetsu-Toma/100002019720979
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/andretoma

How did you get into drawing sketch cards?
I was approached by DC Comics licensing department about three years ago. I had done various projects with them and they thought I’d like to try the DC Universe set. I was inspired to continue sketch cards by my friend Uko Smith who has years of card art experience.

What is your favorite subject to draw?
Superheroes are my favorite subjects to draw.

What is your favorite character to draw?
I don’t have one favorite character to draw in my cards. I lean towards the Avengers and related characters.

Do you prefer black & white sketches or color sketches?
I’ve only done color sketch cards so far.

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?
I use pencil, ink and Copic markers. Occasionally I use color pencil.

Who is your favorite sketch card artist?
My favorite card artist would be Uko because he gives me advise on balancing doing cards and other artwork simultaneously. He’s also a very talented artist, wouldn’t you agree?

What are you currently working on?
I recently worked on Marvel Dangerous Divas and I’m working on the new Marvel set.

Has your career as an artist benefited from doing sketch card work?
It’s more like my art experience helps my card art.  Having done comic book work for over twenty years I’m used to coming up with characters in compositions.

Do you collect trading cards for yourself?
I don’t currently collect sketch cards.

Do you have a website / blog / online presence where readers can find more information about you?
I have a few online galleries but I actually haven’t uploaded much by way of my sketch cards. You can see some of my work at www.comicartfans.com.

How did you get into drawing sketch cards?
I started by submitting pencil and gouache-illustrated cards to what companies I heard were asking for artists. I decided to keep doing card work when I didn’t get replies, or I received a rejection letter, because this type of work is a challenge for me. See, I used to work only in pencil before and I wanted to try color again - first in watercolor and then I jumped into markers and inks. I also wanted to find out if I could illustrate on the smaller surface.

I started out with subjects that I am familiar with the most - some comic book characters, Doctor Who and ThunderCats - because 1) when one loves what they do and illustrate who/what one is passionate about, the results are positive, validating, 2) the new tools and techniques were fun to learn by illustrating who/what was familiar to me, and 3) I wanted to build up my online portfolio.

What is your favorite subject to draw?
Generally decent role models, especially female characters being strong, confident individuals who are credits to the good of their races.

What is your favorite character to draw?
Cheetara of ThunderCats (OS)

Do you prefer black and white sketches over color sketches?
Black and white; I am aware fellow illustrators can utilize color in sketches (traditional and digital), I see a sketch in my mind is started with graphite pencil on a drawing surface. I’m quite sure if I learned to sketch in color, I’d lean toward color for my answer.

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?
I am most productive and intuitive with just graphite pencil, eraser and bristol (vellum) paper.

Who is your favorite sketch card artist?
Aw, I really don’t have just one favorite artist. Off the top of my head I’m really into the art and techniques of Nicole Goff, Trev Murphy, CK Russell, Leah Mangue, Chris Butler, Ingrid Hardy, Tony Perna, Elaine Perna, Otis Frampton, Katie Cook, Ted Dastick, Jessica Hickman and Danielle Soloud…

What are you currently working on?
Versicolor’s Bettie Page Private Collection sketch card set.

Has your career as an artist benefited from doing sketch card work?
My career as an illustrator has benefited in my technique and working professionally by doing sketch card work.

Do you collect trading cards for yourself?
Not at this time.

Do you have a website / blog / online presence where readers can find more information about you?
My current updated presence is at http://CelestaKrantz.deviantart.com and my main site is at http://www.CelestaKrantzArt.com.

How did you get into drawing sketch cards?
Drawing comics since 2007 for other countries through the agency GlassHouse and the following year was invited to sketch series cards in Marvel Women. That was in 2008, and on occasion I did not know how I should make these cards. I realized I should draw soft and loose, but maintaining the quality of work. The funniest part is that I can do my style without restrictions.

What is your favorite subject to draw?
Although for now only make cards of Super heroes and villains of Marvel, I think pretty fun. See, I can put my own concept giving more personality to the character. The more strange is the character, the more I play with it. I have a strong influence of Italian Disney comics and cartoons, so it’s natural that I would like to add a lot of sense of movement and expression.

What is your favorite character to draw?
Wow, this is difficult. There are many, but winning by very little from others believe it’s Dare Devil. But I repeat that I love drawing any character as long as I can hold my own style and personality to play with them.

But if there’s a character I’d really like to do is Captain Marvel (DC Comics). He was my childhood hero and even today I find him very entertaining. A guy who can fly, move mountains and it’s still just a kid who uses magic words to transform. Awsome! Ahahah.

Ah yes, another love that drawing is the Star Wars universe.

Do you prefer black & white sketches or color sketches?
There is a preference. Much depends on what I want to convey the image. What kind of impact I want to lead, whether dramatic or vibrant.

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?
I have the freedom to use any material for coloring, but between all my favorite is watercolor and acrylic paint. These inks can control the dynamics and tone without becoming too strong.

Who is your favorite sketch card artist?
I do not have a favorite. Each has interesting peculiarities full of solutions and visions that inspire me a lot. I really do not I chose a number one.

What are you currently working on?
Currently I’m working on strips weekly Supa Strikas. A fictional soccer team. These strips appear in newspapers in South Africa and other African countries. I love this job because there is great freedom so I can play with the characters. I am also doing comics for companies that want to transmit internal campaigns to employees: safety, quality, ethics, etc..

And of course, more cards. I’m starting a new series of Marvel sketch cards.

Has your career as an artist benefited from doing sketch card work?
Oh yeah, yeah. Thanks to this, my portfolio has attracted more customers and I’ve done more art commission. But the biggest benefit, no doubt, was an improvement in my style in my work. How to get large volumes, about 300 cards, it forced me to develop a greater flexibility to Draw and increased my speed a lot and comply the deadline. I learned to discard what was unnecessary to resolve a scene while my dash lines acquired more elegant. That’s wonderful, because it put into practice many principles of animation in static drawing.

Do you collect trading cards for yourself?
Oh no. I may even buy a card or another, but only if it is something very specific. I leave my side collector for other things.

Do you have a website / blog / online presence where readers can find more information about you?
Of course! I appreciate the opportunity to speak a little of my work and invite you to visit my Blogfolio always with news of recent work I’m doing or where I have a new drawing to show:

www.edferrara.blogspot.com

But you can also find me elsewhere:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Eduardo-Ferrara/1631221053
http://twitter.com/edferrara
http://www.edferrara.deviantart.com
http://projetoestopim.blogspot.com

How did you get into drawing sketch cards?
I have had a comics career for many years, I have worked for large comic companies and got bored. Actually I did not make much money doing that so I decided to change my carrer path. I do enjoy to draw super heroes though, and a friend of mine, Vitor Ishimura, invited me to draw sketch cards for Rittenhouse.

What is your favorite subject to draw?
I enjoy drawing female characters.

What is your favorite character to draw?
Silver Surfer and Thor are my favorite. But to tell you the truth, I love any Marvel character.

Do you prefer black & white sketches or color sketches?
I have only made colered sketches so far, but I would love to make B&W.

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?
Inks and watercolors.

Who is your favorite sketch card artist?
Anthony Tan is a great artist. My childhood friend, Alex Magno is another great one. I also enjoy Vitor Ishimura, Andre Toma, David Lee, Mauro Fodra and Ed Ferrara.

What are you currently working on?
Marvel Universe Cards! I have been thinking about drawing Comics again.. but I am not sure.

Has your career as an artist benefited from doing sketch card work?
I really don’t know, because that is something I do not think about often. In Brazil there is no influence whatsoever, since I do ilustration for children’s books.

Do you collect trading cards for yourself?
I have a lot of them! But unfortunatelly they are not commercialized here in Brazil.

Do you have a website / blog / online presence where readers can find more information about you?
Yes. http://eddewagner.blogspot.com