Thursday, September 29, 2016

Expression Through Custom Cards


If you guys missed my last post (and it seems only the Fashion Shoes spambot is much of a loyal reader these days, lol), my Stranger Things custom set contest was decided by the outcome of the Dodgers @ Padres game last night.


Hunter Renfroe had a big night and helped make a winner out of Daniel Wilson, with 11 combined runs being scored in the game. Renfroe has been incredible since being called up recently, and has given Padres fans like me something to be optimistic about going into next season.

I was happy to see Daniel shake out on top, as he seems genuinely really into the show and the customs and I know they'll have a good home with him.

Another custom contest that has had a much less happier outcome for me is Jedi Jeff's "make a custom of yourself as a kid" contest. I excitedly crafted my submission for it, spending about two hours meticulously creating a passable representation from scratch of 1956 Topps (a set sited by many as their favorite card design of all time). I was really proud of it and felt good about my chances contending in the contest. Welp, the voting went live and my hopes sank. Last I checked, I was in dead last.. ain't nobody voting for me. I gotta admit, the utter lack of support I received hurt my feelings a little. :dejectedly kicks a rock while pouting:

While in the past I've drawn or written songs, these days my main outlet for creative self-expression is making custom cards. And so I whipped up a card to express my feelings regarding this perceived personal affront to me by the cardblog-reading public.







Yep, I've just given the finger to the cardsphere through a custom baseball card. At first I was worried that might be going too far, but then I remembered the name of my blog is Baseball Card Breakdown, and therefore losing my cool every once in a while keeps my blog on-theme, which is good. So suck it.


I'm happy with how this Johnny Cash Conlon-style card turned out.

But let's hug-it-out and get past this ugliness, moving on to a friendlier custom...


Watching Vin Scully's final Dodger Stadium broadcast last Sunday was a moving experience. Sadness was fresh in the air from the morning, with the untimely death of Jose Fernandez, through the late afternoon, with the passing of Arnold Palmer. And between them was another ending no one wanted to see, that of Vin Scully's tenure as Pope of Dodgertown. I again turned to custom card-making to express my feelings, creating yet another card honoring Mr. Scully.


This 1989 Upper Deck style card came out pretty good. I'll definitely make an effort to catch his final broadcast, this Sunday from San Francisco.

Finally, here's a Tony Gwynn SDSU custom:


This image of Tony from his days at my alma mater with complementing logo and full-name signature comes from a larger print I made a while back, but it only makes sense that I'd shrink it down to standard card-size. Took me a while to get around to it, but here it is.


And I whipped up a back with a photo from his hoop dream days and a little write-up on his collegiate career. As I've said before, I love the heck outta Tony Gwynn, and it's a sweet bonus for me that we both graduated from the same school, so I love to see that commemorated on cardboard.

There you have it, a few customs from the heart. Copies of all are available for trade, including the Stranger Things cards, so if you're interested in anything, take a look at my wantlist and drop me an email. Or if you're a regular trader-buddy of mine and would like me to throw anything here in with the next bunch of cards I send you, just let me know and I'll add it to your stack.

Thanks for stopping by! Sorry about flipping y'all off earlier via Johnny Cash.

25 comments:

  1. Awesome work on these, and screw fashion shoes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, man. And yeah, Google is usually pretty good about keeping spam to a minimum, but F.S. has definitely been a pain in the butt of the cardsphere this week.

      Delete
  2. Man, I think you could make a mint on those 89UD customs of Vin on Ebay. He's so well loved and there are so few cards out there of him. Beautiful card by the way!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Yeah, Vin deserves all the cards he can get, and the market is definitely there for them, so it's odd he doesn't get more cardboard love.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Glad you like it and great to meet you the other day!

      Delete
  4. Fashion Shoes is an avid reader of all the blogs lately - "FaShobot" as I like to call it even took the time to comment on one of my early posts from last year.
    I agree, the Vin Scully custom is fantastic, and the Johnny Cash card is pitch perfect as well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd be interested in knowing if all the spamming lead to even a single sale. I don't think card collectors are all that mindful of having fashionable footwear. lol. Now if it was spam for like "discount hobby boxes!" then you'd get a lot of clicks!

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. Thanks man.. I'll throw one in with my next PWE to you.

      Delete
  6. All great cards as usual but whoa, that Scully, that's pricelessly perfect!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I wanted to make another Scully custom after Topps put the kibosh on the 2015 Topps-style custom I made for him, so I went with good ol' 89UD.

      Delete
  7. Replies
    1. Indeed! I'll throw one in with you next mailing.

      Delete
  8. I don't know anything about Stranger Things, but nice job on the customs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, man.. if you have access to a Netflix account, I'd definitely recommend checking out the show.

      Delete
  9. I can't believe yours hasn't got more votes. I was expecting mine to be at the bottom, and rightly so as I am not on the level of the other submissions, but you actually printed yours and it looks nice. Here's hoping you can take the crown at the end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jeremy. Yeah, I thought the fact that mine was an actual, physical card would help, but didn't seem to play out that way. Lost Collector's custom features a damn cute photo, so that's hard to compete with, especially with my geeky photos.

      Delete
  10. There's rightfully a lot of love for the Scully, but I'm loving that Gwynn. I can't believe I didn't know he played basketball!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, he was fire on the court! I think he still holds some of those records.

      Delete
  11. I've been in a funk lately and haven't read many blogs but I will say that I love your customs. In fact I think one of the biggest reasons I try my hand at making customs is because of your flawless creations. I will never be able to match anything you have done, but you have inspired me to keep trying.

    By the way, I was listening to music on my computer a couple days ago and one of Fiber Octopus' songs I downloaded appeared on my playlist, it put a smile on my face. I might be one of the last few people who doesn't use streaming radio, but I think with my 3700 hours of music I have I can do without streaming for a while. It's always good to find random songs you haven't heard in a while.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bless your heart! There's no greater compliment I can get than that a song I recorded put a smile on somebody's face. Thank you!

      And good luck with your own customs. My best advice would just be mess around in Photoshop (or whatever program you're using) to get comfortable with it and learn how to do things you wanna do. Maybe look up tutorials on YouTube if you need guidance.

      Delete
  12. Great looking customs as usual! All great but I love the one of Gwynn playing basketball!

    ReplyDelete