Princess Leia Sketch by Dan Nokes

I picked up another Princess Leia sketch card from the Topps Star Wars Chrome Perspectives: Jedi vs. Sith set. This one was done by artist Dan Nokes, who has put out some self-published comics and seems to be quite active on the convention circuit. I thought it was a nice different take on Leia, capturing her character in a style that reminds me of Underground Comix. I don't know a lot about that genre so I could be way off, but that's what I thought of when I saw this sketch. I was pretty happy when the auction ended and I came away as the winner. In digging around on his website I saw a notice that he is transitioning out of doing fanart of the big corporate-owned characters (Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Disney, TMNT, etc.) in favor of doing his own work with his own characters as well as ideas that are in the public domain. It seems like a pretty courageous move, as self-publishing seems to me like an incredibly grueling and difficult task. It's hard to put yourself out there in a creative way. I don't know if I would be able to do something like that.

A lot happened over the weekend. My wife and I attended a marriage workshop put on by the National Guard. We had a pretty good time. The big world news was the terrorist attacks in Paris that left many people dead. There were attacks in Beirut as well, although they didn't get as much press until after the Paris attacks when the press wrote articles asking why the Beirut attacks didn't get any press. I have some thoughts on the attacks and the press about the attacks, but I don't like to get too political online.

It was also an interesting weekend in sports. The biggest sports news is probably Ronda Rousey losing by knockout to Holly Holm in UFC 193. That was somewhat unexpected. I have yet to watch the full fight, but I did watch a clip of the end of the fight. For teams that I follow, the Houston Rockets have managed to lose their way to a 4-6 record so far on the season. And their losses have been pretty ugly. In football the Denver Broncos followed up a loss to the Colts with a horrible loss to the Chiefs. Peyton Manning completed 5 passes for 35 yards to break the all-time record for passing yards, but he threw four! interceptions and got benched in favor of Brock Osweiler, who played reasonably well and led a couple of scoring drives to make the score a little less embarrassing. Denver is 7-2 on the year, but based on game quality it seems like they should be 4-5 or 5-4. New England looms in two weeks, and they also have games against Pittsburgh and Cincinnati as well as divisional games against Oakland and San Diego. The Broncos will probably make the playoffs, but I can't see them moving past the first round unless they find some offense somewhere.

2015 Topps Star Wars Chrome Perspectives: Jedi vs. Sith: Princess Leia Sketch Card by Tanner Padlo

For some reason the sketch cards from the Topps Star Wars Chrome Perspectives: Jedi vs. Sith set don't seem to be as popular with bidders as sketch cards from other recent sets. Maybe it's because the frames restrict the size of the sketch? I don't know. Maybe it's all in my head and they are just as popular as other sketches. I just know that I've been able to grab several Leia sketches from this set without spending a ludicrous amount of money on them.

This sketch was done by artist Tanner Padlo. He seems to be most active on Instagram if you want to see some of his other stuff. I wish I had more to say about this one. It's a pretty cool sketch and Padlo does some nice work, but I am not feeling particularly inspired right now as I write this. I am trying to have a post for every day in October, but it's harder than it seems to come up with something to write for every day of the month. It was a good sketch, especially for the price I paid. Leia's pose is one of the more common ones that artists use for reference. There's nothing wrong with that as there is only so much reference material out there, but I kind of like it when an artist comes up with something of their own rather than copying a picture from a comic book or film. But at the rates the card companies are paying I can understand that artists need to pump out a certain number of cards in a limited amount of time, and the best way to do that is to replicate a photo or still from the film in your own personal style and art medium of choice. This one looks just fine as part of my Leia sketch collection. Padlo has got a couple of pieces in his Etsy shop that I really like. One is a painting of Luke and Leia together and one is a Star Wars sketch cover of Han Solo with a Toy Story twist. You should check them out.

Another Princess Leia Sketch Card

I picked up another sketch card for my Princess Leia collection. I think this is my 6th Leia sketch card. This one comes from the 2015 Topps Star Wars Chrome Perspectives: Jedi vs. Sith and was drawn by Charles Dowd. It looks like he is more active on Facebook than on his website, which seems to be a pretty typical thing for artists these days. He is an independent comic book creator whose focus seems to be on making comics that are accessible and appropriate for kids to read.

This sketch is relatively simple, but it has a distinctive style that matches Dowd's other work. He's drawn a younger Leia, which is in line with the protagonists in his comic books, who were created to give his daughter inspiration and provide her with some literature that features a female lead in her age group. There is no end of comic books with boys as lead characters, but it's a little harder to find a girl in a leading role.

He's got a Kickstarter going right now for a book he's put together showing women in all kinds of career paths to encourage girls to expand beyond traditionally 'female' jobs. I don't have any daughters, but I do have a handful of sons and I've tried to talk to them about women in terms of more than just their physical attributes, emphasizing that their mother (my wife) has many talents and skills, such as being far better at math than I am.