Working in my Studio

I had some free time after dinner tonight (with the grill making its first appearance of the year!).  Kate is off at a calligraphy class she's taking at the local community college, and I decided to get in touch with my artistic side a bit as well.

I've always been a bit frustrated by art.  I loved it as a kid, but just never could get things on paper quite the way they looked in my head.  Maybe my expectations were just a bit too high.  My dad went to art school, and has a knack to put together some great stuff without so much as a reference.  One of my best friends is a professional artist, and we basically held him hostage for a few days before the wedding during which he did some amazing stuff to decorate the wedding venue.  And my grandmother picked up painting later in life (thanks, Bob Ross) and surprisingly had a great eye for landscapes.  Me?  I guess I just didn't have the patience.

But luckily the same can't be said for my computer skills.  Don't get me wrong - I don't consider slapping some custom cards together to be any true art.  It's more of an amusing hobby.  But it is fun to see what I can create sometimes.

1993 Studio is, in my eyes, the pinnacle of what was a really unique concept.  The cards had a lot going on, but in a way that fit together perfectly.  And with how much uniforms have changed over the past 22 years, I figured it was worth revisiting what the set would look like today.

 I absolutely love the faux throwbacks the Rays wore the past couple seasons.  Joe Maddon has moved on to the future strikeout machine in Chicago, but I figured it was worth throwing together a card for old time's sake.  If only I can figure out how to replicate the holo-foil effect for the signature.

The Pirates on the other hand have seen relatively little change in their primary color scheme.  But the black home and road alternate is definitely the club's most unique look.  Somewhere in the space-time continuum, 1993 is wondering why this pajama top is currently a major league jersey.  But the look has admittedly grown on me over the last couple years.

I'm wondering how one of these would look if I remove the facsimile signature and get it signed for real.  But maybe that will be a project for later this week.