Wednesday, January 4, 2012

OilCan Drive Trading Cards

As busy as I was over the holidays trying to get all of the client work done I did find myself one night, at 3am, sketching out this new OilCan Drive piece of artwork.

The first art job I had coming out of the Kubert school was working as an assistant artist at a studio that specialized in creating comic book trading cards. During that time trading card sets were all the craze and, recently, I've found myself really missing those days.

I did some research and looked around the web for places that can print trading cards and I've found a few that can do some really good cards for not that much money. So, of course, my mind started racing. One of the things I comfort myself with while I am so busy doing client work is all the projects and ideas I want to explore once I have some free time. And, over the years, the idea of doing OilCan Drive trading cards keeps coming back into the forefront of my mind.

So, I did this quick sketch late at night which is 200% the size of a printed trading card. I just wanted to see how it felt to draw a card this size and see what I could come up with. And, it was nice to just sketch something for fun that wasn't for work. I think I need to do that more often.

And, while I'm not sure I'll go ahead with finishing this piece (I didn't like the way Ryan came out too much but I did really like the way both Nicole and Vince came out) it was nice to play a bit.

It's also not the first time I've been thinking about doing a trading card set. If you'll look at this blog post I did over two years ago you'll find I was already trying to figure out a way to package a set of trading cards if I ever get them done.

So, who knows, it may not be the last time we see an OilCan Drive trading card idea. It's just something that I can't get out of my head.

Have a great day!

2 comments:

Jeff Lafferty said...

That box was awesome! I kind of forgot you made that thing.

... but whats this 200% up stuff? Do them 1 to 1 and then you'll have a pile of cards to use as the original sketch card inserts.

Anyway, I think the card set is a great idea and if you ever went ahead with it, I would defiantly want to buy a box.
Jeff

Sean Tiffany said...

Thanks, Jeff!

200% just felt a bit more natural to me than doing them the same small size of the printed pieces. When I first started working on trading cards we had to paint all of the cards at same size (it's how I learned to airbrush and paint professionally, by the way...painting cards that were 2.5"x3.5) and the day I was allowed to work larger and have it shrunk down to fit I swore I'd never go back.

Plus, I'm getting old and I like bigger things. Next thing I'll need from you for Christmas is one of those phones with the giant numbers on it.

But, I do like the idea of original sketch cards in the boxes. That is something I'll have to think about as I sit and do work and fantasize about projects I'd like to do in the future.