Custom '51B-style Shula rookie . . . almost wasn't

This is the second of my trilogy of custom cards of Don Shula in his NFL playing days. It almost didn't see the light of day.


I spent most of an afternoon working with a black-and-white posed action photo of Shula in the early 1950s when he was with the Cleveland Browns. The photo suffered from a lack of contrast, so colorizing it and converting its look from a photograph to "artwork" was more difficult than usual and I was not satisfied with the initial result.


The 1951 Bowman Jim "Bulldog" Turner card provided the background on my Shula custom. When I had placed the player photo on the background, I still was not happy with the result. I brooded on it overnight and had pretty much decided to scrap the project. The next morning, I opened up the file for one last look and found it was not as bad as I remembered. 


Bumping up significantly the color intensity on both the player and the background got me a lot closer to what I think a 1951 Bowman should look like. 


While I wouldn't tout my 1951-style Shula rookie as the epitome of my custom card work, the final card will be printed and placed in my album.


There's one more Shula player card on my drawing board, it should be available for viewing in a few days.