Sketch Card Mania by Randy Martinez and Denise Vasquez

8/6/2019 Sketch Card Mania by Randy Martinez and Denise Vasquez

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Co lle c t ib le Tra d in g Ca rd s

Rand y Mar t inez &

Denise Vasquez

S k e t c h C a r d

M A N I A

k e t c h a r d

I n c l u d e s 9 A R T I S T a n 9 S K E T C H - I TY O U R S E L F c a r d s !

Ho w To Cre a t e

Yo u r O w n Or ig in a l



C O N T E N T S What You’ll Need for This Book 5

A Brief History of Sketch Cards 6

PART 1

Sketch Card Tool Box 8

An introduction to the materials you’ll need plus basictechnique instruction for creating sketch cards in pencil,colored pencil, pen and ink, colored markers, acrylic,watercolor and mixed media.

PART 2

Designing and

Constructing YourPersonal Sketch Card 50

What to include on the back of your sketch card and howto print, mount and cut professional cards.

PART 3

Sketch CardDemonstrations 74

Thirteen awesome sketch card demonstrations from startto nish.

PART 4

Introduction toSelf-Promotion 102

Get started promoting yourself as an artist online from

building your own website to getting involved with thebest social networking sites for artists. Includes awe-some tips on breaking into the business from six industryprofessionals.

Sketch Card Resources 117

Gallery 118

Index 126

Ta b le o f O N T N T Sa b le o f



1 Before you apply any marks to your sketch card, createa few practice drawings on other paper. When you’ve

decided on your subject, begin drawing in the basic lines andfeatures you want to keep from your practice drawing.

When drawing in graphite, always start out drawing lightly.You can erase your foundation lines later, or you can keepthem and use them as part of your shading. Notice that mylines are light and fairly sketchy. It is at this point that youwould decide what medium you are going to use to completeyour sketch card.

2 Continue to build your subject from shapes and guide-lines. Draw only the lines you want to keep, excluding

guidelines and unwanted lines. In the early stages, yoursketch card should be just that: sketchy.

Graphite Pencil T EC HNIQU E

Graphite is a great tool to draw with because you can drawwith a full range of lights and darks. The more you draw withgraphite, the better your control will be of the medium. Prac-

tice making light to dark gray scales with a graphite pencil.How light or rm you apply the pencil is everything whendrawing with graphite. This warrior princess sketch card wascreated using a simple no. 2 pencil.

14 Bonus material available at http://sketchcardmania.impact-books.com

http://sketchcardmania.impact-books.com/




too dark just rightDo not sketch with heavy dark lines.Sketch with light, easy-to-read andeasy-to-erase lines. When you’re readyto add the nal lines and details, switchto a darker pencil. Use your darkest

pencil (or a black pen or marker) tocreate any shading and texture at the

very end.

3 Continue outlining the lines you want to keep. Keepyour pencil sharpened for small details like the eyes and

mouth. Do not shade in anything at this point, just go for thelines.

5 Once you have erased all of yourunwanted sketch lines, lightly

draw in the shadows. Start by usingvery light strokes of your pencil. Youwill notice that the more you sketchover one area, the darker it gets withoutpushing hard on the pencil. Don’t coverany area too solidly; leave some whitefor highlights.

4 Lightly rub a kneaded eraser over the entire card. Thelight sketch lines will disappear, leaving only the dark

lines you outlined earlier.

S K E T C H L I G H T L Y

15



8 Add your signature, then sit backand admire your cool graphite

sketch card!

7 Finish up your drawing by adding smaller details. Youdon’t need to draw every strand of hair. Simply suggest

hair by using a few lines of varied thickness.

WARRIOR PRINCESS

Sketch card by Randy Martinez

6 After you have drawn in your light shadows, beginshading in the dark areas and lines. Vary the darkness

of your lines and shadows. The darkest darks should bereserved for areas that receive the least light and details likeeyelashes.

Smudge sticks, or tortillions, are sticks oftightly rolled paper used to blend and smudgegraphite. Hold at an angle to avoid piercing the

paper.

P R A C T I C E B L E N D I N G W I T H A S M U D G E S T I C K






GYPSY WARRIOR


STITCHED FAIRY

Sketch card by Nicole Falk OLD WEST DINOSAUR

Sketch card by Jeff Chandler PIRATE SHIP


C O L O R E D M A R K E R S k e t c h C a r d s

CAPTAIN T-REX

Sketch card by Jeff Chandler

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Mounting the Card Back Now that you have your sketch card backs printed nine on asheet, you are ready to construct your sketch card. You willneed all of the materials listed on the previous page.

1 Put your sheet of sketch card backs face down on cleannewspaper. Spray an even layer of spray mount on the

blank side of the card. Use a generous amount without allow-ing the glue to pool—about two seconds of spraying. Sprayabout 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20cm) away from the paper.

2 Carefully pick up the sheet of sketch card backs by thecorners and lay it glue-side down on the drawing paper

of your choice. Line up the sketch card backs with the draw-ing paper starting at the upper left corner. While holding thebottom side of the sheet off the drawing paper, slowly let thetop edge of the card backs make contact with the drawingpaper toward the upper right corner.

Once you have the upper edge in contact with the draw-ing paper, slowly let the rest of the sheet make contact with

the drawing surface. Use a rolling motion starting from top tobottom. You should now have your card backs looking backat you. It’s OK if the card backs are not lined up perfectly tothe drawing surface. Just make sure none of the sketch cardimage is off the paper.

DEMONSTRAT ION




3 Immediately lay a clean, blank piece of paper over your sheet of cards.Starting from the inside out, gently press down the sheet of paper. This will

securely press your sketch card backs and your drawing surface together.

4 Place your newly made sheet of cards in the centerof a heavy book. Close the book and let it sit for a few

minutes to evenly press the two sheets of paper. Carefullyremove your sheet of cards, and let it sit for ve to ten min-utes. Once the glue dries completely, you are ready to cut the

sheet up.

If you are making multiple sheets of cards,make the sheets one at a time so the glue stays

workable. It’s very important to change thenewspaper after spraying each sheet of cardbacks with spray mount. This will help keepeach card clean.

O N E S H E E T A T A T I M E






Space Alien

1 Sketch the Initial FigureStart by drawing a quick gesture

drawing of the alien—a basic stickgure with an egg shape for the head,

circles for the joints and a rectangle forthe hand.

Draw guidelines on the head soyou’ll know where his facial features go.

2 Add the Main ShapesDraw the rib cage and head tails

that hang down like pieces of ribbon.Draw cylinders for the arms (three arevisible) and neck.

Draw a cylinder for the forearm.Form the body of the gun with somerectangles.

3 Add the Small Shapesand Details

Add the smaller details including thengers, facial features and shoulder

pads. Use the guidelines from step 1 toplace the eyes and mouth.

Continue drawing the facial featureslike the eyes and facial growths. Addthe lower torso by drawing a line fromhis rib cage to the bottom of the card.Continue drawing details to make youralien even more funky!

Zed Lepplin is a Galactic Federation warrior from the planetKasheer. Zed is also the best friend of Cosmo Starre andrst lieutenant of Alpha Squadron. A master of weapons and

engineering, Zed’s skills have saved Cosmo from many lethalsituations. His love of rock music and his humorous demeanorare the perfect contrast to Cosmo’s stoic persona. Zed isfunny and cocky, so be sure to draw him with attitude andspunk.

SKETCH CARD DEMONSTRATION 2






Aliens make great science- ction sidekicks; they make a nice contrastto the stoic hero. Aliens have very specialized skills that help the herosurvive. Even though they look intimidating, aliens can offer comic reliefand show compassion for life.

PROFILESPACE ALIEN

4 Ink the Drawing Add smaller details like textures on his skin, gun details

and facial characteristics. Use a black pen or marker to ll inthe solid dark areas. Erase the lines you no longer need andink your drawing.

5 Color the Sketch CardIf you used a permanent ink marker or pen, you should

be OK to use almost any coloring medium. If you use coloredmarkers, be sure the black ink is nice and dry rst. The greatthing about science ction is that there are no rules—so go

crazy. Make your alien any color you want!




About Randy MartinezRandy Martinez was born and raised in SouthernCalifornia, the son of two artists. He got his rst art-related job at age sixteen as a caricature artist a t Six

Flags Magic Mountain. After a short basketball careerat California Lutheran University, Randy received abachelor of ne arts in design and illustration fromKansas City Art Institute. He then moved back toCalifornia to pursue a professional art career.

Randy became an ofcially licensed artist forLucaslm Ltd. in 1999 when he started drawing gagcartoons for Star Wars Kids magazine. In 2002, hebegan drawing sketch cards for Topps Trading Cardsand has since drawn over 10,000 ofcial cards for StarWars , Lord of the Rings , Heroes , Terminator and Marvel

Comics.Other sketch card and illustration clients include

LucasArts, Inkworks, Red 5 Comics, PlayroomEntertainment, Rittenhouse Archives, BreygentMarketing, Sadlittles, 5FINITY Productions, Wintner ArtistManagement, IDG Entertainment, Paizo Publishing,Guitar Center, Green Ronin Publishing and LifeForceIndie Films Entertainment. He’s been published in themagazines Star Wars Insider , Star Wars Kids , Cracked ,GAG!, Undefeated , Dragon , Amazing Stories , Journal ofthe Whills and Cinescape , as well as in the Los AngelesTimes and the Ventura County Star.

He is perhaps best known for illustrating the keyart for Star Wars Celebrations IV and V and Star WarsCelebration Europe . Other Star Wars illustration creditsinclude art for starwars.com, prints for Acme ArchivesDirect, book covers for Scholastic, key art for JEDI-CON2010.

Randy’s rst IMPACT Book, Creature Features: Draw Amazing Monsters & Aliens , came out in 2009. Visit hiswebsite at www.randymartinez.net.


http://www.randymartinez.net/



http://www.randymartinez.net/



Denise is a professional artist whose talents range fromaward-winning s inger-songwriter, guitarist, activist andactress to published writer, photographer, poet and

freelance journalist for the Examiner.com.Denise has illustrated hundreds of sketch cards for

Topps including Star Wars , The Clone Wars , Indiana Jones and Terminator . Other sketch card work includes Zombies vs. Cheerleaders , the Woodstock poster seriesfor Breygent Marketing, Comics for Cures to benetthe American Cancer Society, the Pediatric OncologyTreasure Chest Foundation, and the 5FINITY ProductionsArchie Comics/March of Dimes series. Denise has alsocollaborated on Marvel and X-Men sketch cards for Rit-tenhouse Archives. In addition to sketch cards, Denise

has designed and illustrated T-shirts, CDs, logos, musicposters, yers, 3-D art and custom vinyl toys working forclients such as Lucaslm, Stan Lee, 501st Legion, DKEToys and World View Graphics.

Since 1999, Denise has worked with WO+MEN 4 ACAUSE, an organization she founded to raise awarenessfor different causes and help those in need. Denise hasalso received numerous awards and nominations forher three self-produced record albums. She is currentlyworking on her fourth album, Life Happens .

Denise proudly incorporates all of her experiences asan activist, artist, actress, dancer, singer, writer and pho-tographer into her life as well as her art. She currentlyresides in Los Angeles, California. Visit her websitewww.denisevasquez.com.

About Denise Vasquez


http://www.denisevasquez.com/

http://www.denisevasquez.com/



Last Words

• Be professional. Treat people with respect.• Create opportunities for yourself. Don’t

expect jobs to come to you.• Be patient. Building your reputation as a

talented and reliable artist takes time.• Follow up on jobs in a timely fashion.• Be realistic about how much work you can

take on at one time.• Keep your portfolio updated.• Go to conventions and introduce yourself to

other artists.• Maintain a strong work ethic. You must con-

tinuously work on your craft.• Stay up-to-date with industry news.• Join and contribute to industry forums.

T I P S F O R B R E A K I N G I N T O

T H E B U S I N E S S

We hope you have enjoyed Sketch Card Mania . It wasour goal to not only teach you the basics of how tomake your own sketch cards, but also to inspire you

to take your sketch card art to the next level. You cancreate sketch cards as a hobby or make them as gifts.You can seek out groups where you can meet other art-ists, and create and trade sketch cards. You might evenhave an interest in becoming a professional sketch cardartist.

Remember that becoming a professional sketch cardartist takes hard work and lots of time—the industryis very competitive. Don’t let that discourage you. The

journey along the way, lled with all of your accomplish-ments and growth, is the best part of living the dream.

So whether you are pursuing a career in the sketchcard industry or just want to make sketch cards for fun,use these fundamentals as a foundation to create great-looking sketch cards. Always continue to push yourselfas an artist and try out new art materials, styles andtechniques. The only limits you have are the limits of

your imagination.

Best Wishes,

Denise Vasquez and Randy Martinez




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Sketch Card Mania by Randy Martinez and Denise Vasquez