How Much is This in Imperial Credits?

Over a year ago, I posted about some painted dollar bills I'd gotten from artist John Soukup. Those ones were superhero-themed. A couple (few?) months ago, I picked up another handful of them from his eBay store, with this batch focusing on Star Wars characters. It took me a while to scan them and get them to the front of the posting queue.

First up are a couple of Star Wars heroines, Leia and Rey. In the typical Soukup fashion, both are holding pickles in their hands. I haven't thought to ask him, "Why pickles?' but I imagine he has his reasons. The Leia card is what drew me in to bidding on these, but I usually check out his auctions anyway, just to see what cool stuff he's come up with. 

I also got a few other characters, including cantina patron Momaw Nadon, bounty hunter Greedo, and Darth Vader. At the time these were up for auction, there was also a Boba Fett bill listed that I lost out on when I got distracted as the bidding closed. That was disappointing, but I've become a lot better about not getting worked up when I lose an auction. There will always be another cool thing out there for me to add to my collection, and most of the painted bills on offer wound up coming to me anyway. I really ought to stop by the Art-o-mat machine here in Dayton while I'm in the area. I'm in a different hotel this year, so the gallery is pretty far out of my way. It still might be worth the trip, though, to see what they've got in the machine this time.

My Long Journey to See the Art-o-mat!

Some time ago I was goofing around on the internet, as is my custom, and I stumbled across something called Art-o-mat. An Art-o-mat is a retired cigarette vending machine that is refurbished and converted to dispense pieces of artwork that are the same size and weight as a pack of cigarettes. I thought that was a pretty cool thing, but I checked the map and saw that Idaho does not have an Art-o-mat machine in the state. I did, however, notice that there is one in Dayton, Ohio. I happen to be in Dayton for some training right now, so I put it on my list of things to do while I'm here.

My work has kept me pretty busy during the day and I have been studying in the evenings, so I haven't had a lot of opportunity to get out and about yet. But today we got out of class early enough that I had time to put my plan into action. The plan was to park my car at a park near the river and walk the trail down the river to the Dayton Visual Arts Center, where I would use the Art-o-mat, see what else there was to see, and head back down the trail to my car, hopefully catching a lot of Pokemon along the way.

Things started out pretty well. The trail is paved and it was pretty scenic. Ohio is very green. If you leave nature to fend for itself in Idaho, it turns brown and rocks come out of the ground. If you don't mow every 8-12 hours in Ohio, you get a wall of brush and weeds 20 feet high.

My main complaint is that it was hot and muggy. I think the temperature was around 90 degrees and the humidity was like a million gallons per atmospheric unit or however they measure the water in the air. That is one reason why I was the only person on the trail aside from the occasional bicyclist. The other reason is that after I got down the trail a ways it was blocked off and closed for construction. There were detour signs, so I followed them and found myself walking several miles through the less-scenic parts of Dayton. There were waste management companies, recycling facilities, scrapyards, forges, abandoned buildings, and all the stuff you usually see while driving quickly through the industrial part of town. I am glad that for most of the detour there were sidewalks. I noticed that I continued to be the only person stupid enough to be out walking in the heat.

After a long time, I got to where I was headed. There were people there, and I saw a park with a water pad and benches and a vending machine where I might find a cold bottle of water. But first I had to get to the Art Center.

This is me in front of the Dayton Visual Arts Center. I actually took this picture as I was leaving, but that doesn't really matter. It didn't change much while I was in there. Before getting to the Art-o-mat I signed the guest book, enjoyed the air conditioning, and looked at the displays they had up. It's a small building, but there was enough art there to keep me busy for 20 minutes or so. I don't have much of an art vocabulary, but there were a few things that made me linger and think for a minute. There was a guy moving around, setting up a table with hors d'oeuvres for an event they were having. One art fixture was a wind chime/gong-looking thing. I wanted to make a sound with it, but I wasn't sure if it was okay. Later on a couple came in for the event and the guy went over and rang the chime and I cheered a little inside. They were known to the guy setting up the table, so it was probably better for that guy to be the one to bang the chime.

So I finally got back to the Art-o-mat machine and had to decide which art to get. It's a pretty cool-looking fixture in itself. They are all different and there are a lot of them. The gallery of machines on the Art-o-mat site is pretty impressive. Each slot in the machine is stocked with art by a particular artist, so you have some idea about what you might get.

I saw a familiar name among the listings, as Kettle is a pseudonym for John Soukup, an artist I've featured many times on my blog. I knew from my research beforehand that each piece of art costs $5, so I had a couple of fives ready. Two times I put my bill in the machine and pulled the handle, and after a ker-chunk sound and some rattling a painted block of wood slid out of the chute.

Here are the pieces I got, both by Kettle. In retrospect it might have been cool to sample some other artists, but maybe I can visit again and give it a shot. I was happy to add another couple of pieces to my Kettle art collection. I'm pretty sure that I purchased the last two Kettle pieces in the machine, as when I looked at the slot in the machine that painting of the girl was the one on top of his stack. Not all of the art is paintings on blocks of wood. Some artists make jewelry and put it in little boxes. I saw that one person makes little toy rocket ships that can be assembled. Artists make little notebooks or figurines and package them so that they are the right shape. It's a pretty cool idea.

At this point I realized that it was about time to start heading back. I hadn't thought ahead enough, and now I had a dilemma. I had these two pieces of artwork painted with water-soluble paints, and I had to get them all the way back across town to my car. I asked the guy at the gallery if they had a bag I could take with me, and he went in the back and found something that would work. I thought that was pretty nice of him, and I thanked him and went on my way because it looked like the art event was about to kick off and I didn't want to be there when that happened. I don't have a goatee, so the art folks would have known me for an outsider and hazed me or something.

I walked back by the park and found that the vending machine didn't work, but there was a concession stand and I bought a slush drink from them. It was probably the best dollar I spent this year. It was just icy sugar water, but I was hot and miserable and that sugary water ice drink was the best thing in the world. I noticed that there were a lot of people around looking at their phones, so I got my phone out and saw that I was right on top of two Pokestops. I sat there with my slush for a while and caught a lot of Pokemon, including several new ones that I hadn't seen yet. The breeze coming in off the river made the weather almost nice, if a little hot. Once I started walking again that niceness went away. I walked past Fifth Third Field where the Dayton Dragons play baseball, but they didn't have a game tonight. It looked like there was something going on in the park, but it wasn't baseball. After that I walked through a slightly different part of Dayton's industrial area than I had on the way in. Again, I was the only person on the sidewalk for the whole time.

At one point a woman called out, "I like your bag! It's real cute!" from a car stopped at a red light. I thanked her, but I think she must have been messing with me or something. As you can see, it's a plain white bag with handles on it. I guess maybe it's an odd thing for a man to be carrying around the industrial area of town. I am not very good with social cues and interactions, so I don't really know what was going on there. Hopefully she got what she was looking for.

Eventually I got back to my car and I was very happy to be sitting down in the air conditioning again. My feet still hurt, and I imagine I will have more aches and pains tomorrow. The walk was a little too long and the heat was a little too hot for me to be doing that kind of thing. I would like to go back over to that area of town, but next time I will park a lot closer. At least I got some nice art, some new Pokemon, and a decent story out of the ordeal.

The Art Collector

I've shown off quite a few pieces of art done by John Soukup aka Kettle over the last year or so, including several sketch cards, a sticker sketch, and a Ken Griffey Jr.-themed painted baseball. Several times I have expressed the desire to own a larger piece of his work, but I wasn't ever sure if I would be able to make it happen.

Earlier this year he posted one of his paintings on eBay, a piece featuring Marvel comic book characters Thing and Man-Thing having some tea. I was in a position to bid on it at the time, probably because it was around tax return time, and when the dust cleared I was the winner.

I'm not 100% sure that I 'get' this painting, but I know a Carfax report shows information for used cars, like accidents, ownership history, repairs, and maintenance records. I would imagine that it would be useful to get a similar report for someone's heart, so you can know what kind of stuff to watch out for before you begin a new relationship. That might take some of the fun and mystery out of things, though.

I was really excited to see the next painting he posted a little while later. I had actually seen it on his DeviantArt page in late 2015, and I liked it so much that I even left a comment on the gallery page. And I mentioned it in a blog post in January. I'm not sure why, but I could stare at this thing for hours. I went back and looked at it quite a bit online over the first couple months of 2016, and when Kettle posted it on eBay I knew I had to have it for myself. 

He e-mailed me around the same time to show me some other work and I had to ask him the story behind this painting. The short version of his response is that he goes to a lot of comic conventions and there are always women there cosplaying (dressing up as characters from comics/TV shows/movies) and when they walk by everyone is looking at them and thinking about them. He wondered what the cosplayers were thinking about while everyone was thinking about them and decided that they were probably disconnected from all the attention and instead were thinking about what their cat was doing at home. So this is a Wonder Woman cosplayer focused on her cat while everyone else is focusing on her.

I was able to win this painting, too, and unfortunately as soon as it arrived my wife stole it from me. We share the room that we use as an office, so I still get to look over at her wall and see the painting, but it's not the same as if it were actually mine. I will have to steal it back some day. These are some decent-sized paintings, with the 'Carfax' one being 20" x 20" and the Wonder Woman one (titled 'Left Iowa Saturday Afternoon' on DeviantArt) being 18" x 24".

I am pretty excited that timing and fate matched up in a way that allowed me to obtain both of these paintings for my collection. While these weren't small purchases for me, I feel good every time I look at them and that's more than I can say about a lot of the stuff I buy. While I don't 'get' everything that Soukup / Kettle produces, he does a whole lot of stuff that speaks to me, like there is stuff in the art that tells me he's been to some of the same places mentally as I have. The Star Wars and comic book references are an important part of that, but I think there is more to it than just recognizing the characters or pop culture references. It has more to do with which characters he uses, how they look, and how they interact with each other and their environments. I don't know if any of that made sense. I'm not that great at talking about art and I'm probably even less good at talking about feelings.

These Marvel-ous Dollar Bills have got Me in a Pickle

I won a couple more pieces from artist John Soukup aka Kettle; this time a couple of illustrations from a series he did featuring superheroes holding pickles painted on the face of dollar bills. I chose to bid on these ones because Spider-Man is universally awesome and one of my sons is named after Wolverine. My other two sons are named after superheroes as well, but their namesakes weren't among the items available...yet.

I actually purchased these items and wrote that first paragraph a long time ago, probably several months or maybe even close to a year ago. At the time I was thinking pretty heavily about how you define art and how we separate art from not-art. The thing that really sparked this internal discussion was a couple of performance art pieces I saw, but then I started thinking about sketch cards and art on currency and figures painted for wargaming and where the line is that you have to cross to have something be considered as art. I found that the discussion kind of goes around in circles and seems to have a lot to do with being able to trace the inspirations for your art along a lineage of influences that are accepted by the artsy people as legitimate. You could also influence other people and be retroactively accepted by arty people because they like the work of people who traced themselves artistically back to you. That's the really short version, and there are probably all kinds of holes and exceptions in that definition. You need arty people to like your art or your art isn't really art. For what it's worth, I think the stuff Soukup does is art because it appeals to me in a certain way.

In the time between picking up those first pieces and now I was able to get a couple more bills featuring the characters my other sons were named after, Hulk (Bruce) and Thing (Benjamin). These guys aren't holding pickles, though, so they don't quite all fit the same theme. I think they are pretty cool. I'd really like to pick up one of Soukup's full-size paintings, but that is a #futuregoals kind of thing more than a today thing. Until then I'll keep picking up these smaller works and spend time thinking about the true definition of art.

Leia Wooden Sketch Card by John Soukup

Here's another Princess Leia sketch I've had in my collection for a little while. I got it directly from the artist, John Soukup, through an eBay auction. I really ought to take a picture of this from the side, as the Leia portion of the card is a piece of wood that has been painted and attached to the card. It's a pretty cool piece of art featuring Leia in her classic bun hairstyle and white dress. I like the 3D effect that the wooden figure adds to the piece, although that doesn't really come through in the scan. He has done a couple of commissioned displays featuring groups of Star Wars figures in certain themes, like Hoth or Jabba's Palace. I found these images of them on a Rebel Scum forums thread:

More information on this set on the Mighty Jabba's Collection site!

If you click through the link in the caption on this photo you can see more detail on these figures, like the back of the Rancor! I really like the inclusion of Han Solo frozen in carbonite.

The ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi glows in the dark! I like the C-3PO, too. I think it's the eyes.

I've also seen some Marvel comic book characters that he has made wooden figures for. I think they're a pretty neat item. I'd like to commission a set someday, but it would be hard to decide what universe and which characters to ask for. It would also be really neat to add a full-size painting of his to my wall, but it would have to be the right piece and I'd probably need to save for a while to make it happen.

I was really glad to add another Leia sketch to my collection, and I was also very happy to get another piece done by John Soukup. It looks like he's updated his DeviantArt page a couple of times in the last few months. You can see some of his other stuff on there, like more of the wooden figures, some Star Wars tarot cards, some of his own creations, and a Wonder Woman painting that I can't stop looking at. I have a couple of other things done by him that I've been sitting on for a while because when I bought them I started thinking about the definition and meaning of art. That's a big subject and a blog post I may never be able to wrap my head around, so I might just do a regular post about the items so I can get them up on display.

Leia Sketch Card by John Soukup

I've had this card for quite a while, having won it from an eBay seller back in October. It's a sketch card of Princess Leia by John Soukup from the 2015 Topps Star Wars: Journey to the Force Awakens set. You can see part of Jabba the Hutt in the background there, which leads me to wonder if this card has another piece out there somewhere. I haven't seen one, but I also haven't been looking very hard for it. I do have some pretty wide searches out there for Star Wars sketches and Soukup's work, so I would think that if one exists and comes up for sale I will at least see it.

Because I tend to sit and stew on things for months at a time, I have been thinking about how the world views Princess Leia's slave costume. It bothers me a little bit that people see the costume and say, "Oh! It's sexy Leia!" while ignoring that it is also a slave costume. It is a sexy costume, but it's not sexy because Leia felt like sexing it up that day. It's because Jabba the Hutt was a bad guy who enslaved people and dressed them up to humiliate them and show off his power. The scenes set in Jabba's palace are an important part of the Star Wars story in general and Leia's story arc in particular, and the costume deserves to be known as more than just the "Sexy Leia" costume. The costume is important in that Leia uses the chains that are a part of it to choke and kill Jabba while making her own escape. She is an active participant in the escape / rescue rather than just a damsel in distress waiting on someone else to save her. She overcomes Jabba's attempt to denigrate her and shows that she isn't defined by his attempts to control her.

Maybe I am overthinking this stuff, but as a husband and father I find myself looking at the messages that come into my home and the messages I send by my words and actions. Star Wars is going to be a part of my family's mythology, and the slave costume is part of that. I want to raise my kids to see female characters as more than eye candy. Leia is a powerful hero in the Star Wars universe, and taking a proper view of the slave costume as a symbol of Jabba's ill intentions allows the viewer to see Leia's strength and will to rise above the circumstances she finds herself in. I don't think that the slave costume needs to be whitewashed or removed from the movies. I don't deny that Carrie Fisher looks attractive in the costume. She is attractive in the other Leia costumes, too. But she also plays a character who exhibits strength, leadership, and determination. Physical attractiveness is just one of her qualities.

Sorry for the preachy post. I have conflicting feelings about the slave Leia costume and society's view of women, and I didn't just want to throw the sketch up here on my blog without some sort of commentary. I am not particularly qualified as a champion of gender politics, but I have been thinking about this stuff as I evaluate myself and the messages I send to my wife, kids, and the other people I interact with in life.

We still haven't seen The Force Awakens. It's hard to find five tickets side-by-side that aren't in the front row of the theater. It'll probably be next weekend before we get out to see it. A (former) friend of mine already spoiled the movie for me, so I figure I can wait another week to see it. The logistics of even simple things like going to the movies are much more complicated when you've got three young kids. The new Force Awakens set from Topps has added a new card to my want list, but the going price has this particular card up there in the White Whale category:

It's a sticker autograph, but that doesn't really bother me much. Time will tell if I eventually save enough money up and allocate it to getting a copy of this card, but it's the new top dog on my "If I Win the Lottery" list. It's currently trading at well over $200, so it's not one of those impulse-buy things for me. I definitely would like to add a copy to my Leia collection, though.

Another Awesome Interactive Sketch Card by John Soukup!

I picked up another cool interactive sketch card from John Soukup. The last one I featured was a lift-the-flap style card from Adventure Time. This one comes from the Topps Star Wars: Journey to the Force Awakens set and is an Artist Return I purchased directly from him on eBay. It's a pretty cool Darth Vader sketch in it's own right, but that's not even the best part. You may notice the little cut in the card next to the artist's signature in that scan on the right. That's what allows this to happen:

The card came with a lightsaber attachment that can be extended and retracted for battle. Either that or it's an extra-long tube of lipstick for touching up Vader's makeup while he's out and about. Can't have your face looking ratchet when you're choking Admirals and reviewing the troops. This is one of the cooler sketch cards in my collection and I'm glad I was able to add it to my collection.

John Soukup Adventure Time Interactive Fan Art Card

Here's a pretty cool sketch card I got from the artist, John Soukup, on eBay. I think every box of Cryptozoic's Adventure Time cards came with a blank Fan Art Card so that collectors could draw their own art or commission a custom piece for their collection. I have never watched Adventure Time, so I don't know much of anything about the characters or the plot. But I thought this was a neat sketch because it has a hidden surprise.

The horse's body has a flap that lifts up to reveal the Ice King hiding inside. I believe it was inspired by this scene from the show:

There are so many shows and movies and books and comics and songs out there that I have some interest in, but I don't ever find time to keep up with them. Adventure Time is one of the things that fall into that category. The struggle is real.

Here is the back of the card for the sake of completeness. I like it when artists take time to sign their stuff. It can be a pain in the butt to decipher cryptic symbols on the front of cards. I am getting to where I can tell a lot of artists apart just by their art styles, but there are plenty that I don't know yet or instances when the artist is trying something new that doesn't match their typical style.

Outta Nowhere! A Surprise Package from Kettle aka John Soukup!

(I started writing this a couple of days ago. I don't really feel like going through and changing it all, so I am leaving it as if this all still occurred today.) I came home today and found a box on my desk. That's not all that surprising or unusual as more often than not I've got some kind of package inbound, but I wasn't really expecting anything today. And when I saw the name 'Soukup' on top of the package I knew that 1) it wasn't something I was expecting and 2) it was probably going to be awesome. The box held a note and an Ultra-Pro Ball Holder box. The note said that the artist, John Soukup, had done a Stan Musial ball for someone and thought he ought to do one for me as well. I opened up the box and found this:

John Soukup, who is the artist behind this sketch card and this surprise package as well as a couple of things I haven't yet posted about, had taken the time to paint a baseball and send it to me as a surprise gift. I took pictures of every angle to show off here. The top of the ball has Ken Griffey Jr.'s name on it.

One side features The Kid in a batting stance, wearing his Seattle uniform and trademark eye black.

The other side features a Mariners logo. Some of the paint on a few sides of the ball has rubbed off onto the ball holder. I need to see if there is something I can spray it or brush it with to protect it without causing more damage to the paint. In painting miniature figures for my wargaming hobby I found out the hard way that some sealants used with some paints can cause more harm than good.

This side of the ball shows the honors that Griffey earned during his career. One digit is off on the year for Griffey's MVP award, but we'll just give it Beckett's UER designation and be just fine. He's got a pretty good resume, and I think he might just get into the Hall of Fame when he gets eligible next year.

The other side of the ball tells the statistical story that led to all of those awards and honors. If he hadn't missed so much time he might have had some even better numbers, especially that magical 3000-hit mark. He's been in the news lately for appearing on Macklemore's new music video in a reenactment of his famous Upper Deck Rookie card:

There's quite a bit of gray in that goatee and he's gotten a little thicker, but it's definitely the same guy. I imagine he'll be in the news a bit more as the Hall of Fame discussion ramps up and all the sports writers argue about whether his qualifications and whether or not he came through the Steroid Era cleanly.

It was great to find this surprise in the mail, and it's awesome that John thought of me when it came time to do a baseball project. I don't know that I ever did anything to deserve his generosity, but I sure do appreciate it. I actually have a couple more things from him that I haven't even posted yet because they are part of a post about all sorts of deep meaningful questions that have been on my mind lately. I don't know if I'll ever really get that post finished, but I will eventually be posting more work by him. You can check out his DeviantArt gallery here to see some of his other work. It looks like he updates it from time to time with a sampling of his work.

John Soukup Hits Me With One of the Coolest Surprise Packages Ever!

Early last week I showed off a Princess Leia sketch card by John Soukup that I had purchased from the artist himself on eBay. In addition to posting about the card here, I sent him a message to say thanks and let him know that I am a fan of his work. I try to do that when I get convention sketches done or when I acquire sketch cards that I enjoy, so the artist knows I appreciate the work they put into what they do. He responded to my message and thanked me for my support. Then a few days later a box showed up on my doorstep with his return address on it, full of fun stuff. First is the non-card stuff.

In Soviet Russia, arts patronize you!

That plush Yoda over there on the left says a few phrases from the Star Wars films. I tried to hold on to the A-Team Van Hot Wheels car for myself, but my kids whined and cried so much that I finally gave in and gave them all three cars. Maybe when they get tired of them I will steal it back. The book on the bottom is a music magazine featuring his art on the cover and an interview with more art inside.

He does seem to have an interest in sports and sports cards, so he included a variety of things to hit my player collections, as well as a couple of notable cards that I am saving for the end of the post. First up are three Gheorghe Muresan cards for my 2nd-largest basketball player collection. That '95-'96 Fleer Metal set is something else, especially in-hand. I could look at cards from that set all day. Across the bottom are some cards from Seattle-based teams. I really don't know how to feel about Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch, and the rest of the Seahawks. I want to like them and cheer for them, but there is something going on with them that makes me uncomfortable. I haven't thought really hard about it though, so I can't be any more specific than that.

For the prospecting side of things he added a Bowman Chrome autograph of Tyler Pike, who is still pretty young and seems to be a popular mention whenever someone writes an article about the Mariners' next group of rising stars. I guess we'll see how he turns out.

And here is where the package really takes off. These are a couple of vintage cards with a bit of notoriety to their names. On the left is Pedro Borbon's 1970 Topps Rookie Card, and on the right is Billy Martin's 1972 Topps card. Since Borbon is more famous for what's on the back of his card, we'll start with Billy Martin. You'll notice that Martin is slyly extending the middle finger on his left hand, flipping the bird to the photographer or maybe someone in the background. Usually there is a joker on the team that is prone to this kind of stuff, but Martin was the team's Manager! Anyway, his gesture ensures that this card pops up on many of the internet's Top 10 lists for vulgar or silly trading cards. 

Pedro Borbon's card is famous because the back features a cartoon explaining that his hobby is cock fighting, which is legal in his country of origin, the Dominican Republic. It's not so legal here in the United States, though, which probably makes talking about it in the open like that kind of taboo. I guess it would be akin to printing a football card for Michael Vick announcing that his hobby is dog fighting. Borbon isn't someone I'd read up on until now, and his story is a pretty colorful tale. It seems that he had quite a penchant for getting into trouble and biting people and things.

There was some other cool stuff in the package, but those were the highlights. I could really tell that he went out of his way to select just the right mix of stuff for my collections and interests, and that personal touch to me is probably even more neat than physically getting all of this awesome swag. Make sure to check out his art page and also go look at these awesome Star Wars figure sets he's made (make sure to scroll down and see the Hoth set!). I know that he goes by the name Kettle sometimes, too, but I am not cool enough to know how street names/art names work. Maybe he uses 'John Soukup' for his commercial stuff and 'Kettle' for his more personal art. Either way, I am super excited by this surprise package and I will be seeking out more of his stuff soon!

Star Wars Illustrated: The Empire Strikes Back Leia Sketch Card by John Soukup

I look at a lot of sketch cards on eBay and in forum threads, and occasionally I stumble across an artist whose work I really want to add to my collection. When the sketches from Star Wars Masterwork started being posted one artist who stood out to me was John Soukup, who did some pretty non-traditional stuff for his sketch cards. The ones that really caught my attention were collages and pieces with actual wooden figures attached to the sketch card. I set up a search on eBay to see what other stuff of his came up. I also by chance bid on and won a traditional trading card from him and recognized his name on the Paypal transaction, so that allowed me to follow his auctions directly in case he posted something interesting. I guess it kind of also makes me a creepy stalker. Oh well...

He recently posted a couple of auctions with sketch cards from Topps Star Wars Illustrated: The Empire Strikes Back. There were a couple that featured these colored stripes and character heads. I put in a bid on the Leia one and wound up winning it. The stripe is colored paint with some glitter added for sparkliness (the dictionary says that isn't a word, but I think it is) and Leia's head is actually a little piece of wood painted and glued to the card stock. This is one of those cases where the card looks a bit better in-hand than it does in the scan. I think it's pretty neat, and it is certainly not like all the other sketch cards.

The back of the card features the artist's signature and a congratulatory message for the sketch card owner. Now I just need to find a top loader or something that will hold this card without hurting it. Here is a link to his DeviantArt profile if you want to see some other stuff. I don't know that he has a Facebook or other web presence besides that. If he does I haven't found it yet.