Update, 37 Hrs. Not sure it's actually 2 hours of honest work, my wife and daughter were watching Anne of Green Gables and sometimes I was distracted.

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39.5 Hr Update

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wow! amazing work thanks for sharing
p.s. especially love that Larkin autograph (and i'm usually an anti-autograph guy)

Thanks. I heard about the Larkin signing accepting mail in items. So I put Ruth in the closet and rushed to get something done for Larkin. I sent the item in with specific directions where to sign in the artwork. I think it turned out great, too!

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update

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I did a lot of work behind the scenes today. I ran out of card material and needed to cut more.

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Update. Lots of small pieces today took up more time cutting.

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Did a bunch of smaller tasks including cutting, drawing, and measuring.

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Had to put Babe Ruth aside again. Frank Thomas is coming to Seattle, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to get another card art signed. I only found it with two weeks until the signing, so my goal is to complete the bottom half. He will have plenty of space to sign. I chose his 1991 Topps card. Its a fantastic image. The blue nameplate and team name have been time suckers! But I'm pretty much finished with them, so I can move on to larger pieces for background and pants.

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Day 13 update. Signing is in two days. I've reached the minimum needed for signing. Frank will sign across this colorful strip from his knees to ankles. Above this strip is darker tones.

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Day 14 update. I hit my goal of halfway completed. Signing is tomorrow.

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Looks great.

Thank you. check it with the auto!

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That is beautiful with the auto in the perfect spot.

The Thomas signing was interesting. They had two lines, one for just autos and one for individuals who paid $90 for a picture and small conversation while getting their auto signed. It was held at Mill Creek Sports, just north of Seattle; I'd never been there. Learning experience. If my art was completely done, that would have been a much cooler experience to get a picture.

I was in the line for just an auto. He was all business and flew through signatures, but he wasn't rude, just trying to get everyone through the line quickly. I was walking out of the store when this Mexican guy with tats talks to me about my art project, Jerry Alvarez. I gave him the basic elevator speech (30 seconds). He said he is an artist in Kennewick (tattoo artist), and he also had his own artwork to get signed by Thomas. I was blown away when he showed me, absolutely stunning. You can find him on Instagram @jerryalvareztattoos. He said he is a Dodgers fan, and the Dodgers reposted his Fernando Valenzuela art after his passing. Maybe you saw it if you're on social media. Anyway, talking to Jerry was the best part of my night. He was a really cool and personable guy.

***sorry if the pics are hazy, they are just screenshots.

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Man, you missed an incredible opportunity!!

You should've paid the $90 and had him holding a large sheet or towel to hide half of his body when the picture was snapped to match your piece (as you held it)!!!

Imagine in the future, your grandkids showing the resulting picture to people, talking about how crazy grandpa was! :D

Completed top half border, started in 40th Anniversary logo, and continued with black background.

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Building a torso.

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WOW. First I'm seeing this thread and I've gotta say I absolutely LOVE your process...the colored strips is an idea I've never seen.

As one of the other (lesser!) mosaic guys around here, I love how we all do things differently. There are no rules!

I'll be stealing some of your ideas for sure. :-) Keep up the amazing work!

Thank you.

The step of the process I like best is double sided tape. I first tried glue and got my fingers so sticky from glue...it was like I was a kindergartener! I hated it immediately! After sealing it with clear acrylic medium, my first project has had no issues.

***Note: my professional art friend told me to use clear acrylic medium instead of mod podge. She said mod podge will Yellow over time. If you don't want the old dated look, don't use it.***

***Note 2: Clear acrylic medium allows you to add stuff to the mixture. I intend to make a Refractor by adding colored opalescence. Crossing my fingers it turns out when I do and that I don't waste an entire project!***

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What's the brand of clear acrylic you're using, and is it a brush on or spray?

I've been using Alene's gloss spray for the longest time and have loved the results...gives everything almost a glassy sheen - less so on card backs than fronts, but nice nonetheless.

A few fun ideas I've played with - similar to your strips, I've used a punched square tile theme quite a bit like in this Jordan piece. And not too long ago I tried the modern "relic card" thing with a couple pieces, inserting something behind plastic.

It's such fun stuff - yours are beautiful, please keep sharing your projects and process!

I use Golden brand, it looks something like this. My local art supply store carries it, and they were telling me how to add opal pigment to make the refractor look. It's brush on,I like the effect the brush lines give the final product.

I like your square pieces. I tried cutting parallelogram pieces a couple years ago to make stars in the background. they never came together in a perfect fit and I got so upset. I ditched it and went back to long strips.

I like the quilted look of the Jordan, and I like the Henderson. that's a cool idea to insert memorabilia. I will need to try that in the future.

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I'm going to have to try that gloss medium.

My very first pieces, I did on wood, and sealed them with two step bar top glaze. Talk about a volatile mix. There's nothing quite like working 6 months on something and nearly ruining it in 20 minutes with protectant!

update: Tiny pieces in the arms taking up all my time. But today didn't go as planned, either. It turned from a day free of responsibilities into a day of honey-do's.

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I finished the torso! I finished the logo! That's a huge relief! Black background should get completed lickity split. Then I'll finish with the face.

Also added a close up photo of the White Sox cursive script so you can see the 1991 pieces that make up it's color. I was happy with how it turned out!

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Wow [emoji108]

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That, especially with the signature, is incredible!

Nearly finished! Need to add acrylic medium finish next, and then get it framed.

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Back to the grind.

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Beautiful!!

I haven't worked on Babe Ruth. I got caught up in kids youth sports. I coach my daughters soccer team, and my son played baseball. Those all ended June 1. Now it's end of school year stuff as I'm a teacher. Then I'm going to be a summer camp counselor for Camp Oasis, associated with Crohns and Colitis Foundation. I won't be starting collages until July. But! I'm trying to line up summer projects. I want to complete T206 red & green Ty Cobb, T206 Tris Speaker, complete Babe Ruth, and start Fernando Valenzuela as a trade with another artist. Here's the 12x24 outline for Ty Cobb.

Also, whoever was the artist for this card was skilled. I sketched and resketched his face multiple times. This was the best I could do.

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Duplicated the image today so that it can be similar for the Red and Green backgrounds. Also been cutting cards for the red background.

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I had the artist that done my Red Cobb use all Wade Boggs 1990 Donruss cards for the background. You could use all 1990 Donruss Barry Larkin cards for the red background.

That would be a lot of Barry Larkin cards! I already bought 1989 Bowman. Their backs are red, and I was going to use 1991 Bowman for the green background. I kinda like the muted colors, I think it plays into the old/antiqued/faded idea. And 1990 Bowman is going to be for Tris Speaker T206.

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