Topps 2024 Baseball trading cards, Series 1 cards includes original, hand drawn and painted sketch cards by artists including myself, much like in previous years. These sketch cards are randomly inserted into packs and are exceptionally rare. There are a lot of packs of baseball cards produced but only a small handful of artists that contribute artwork to this product. As part of the compensation for contributing to this project, artists are provided artist proof sketch cards for sale.
What is an Artist Proof Sketch Card?
An artist proof sketch card, or AP, is an official licensed sketch card with original handmade art on it and created by an artist that worked on that specific set. For these Topps baseball sketch cards, an artist handwrites AP or Artist Proof on the backside to denote them being different from a sketch card inserted into a pack. Grading companies like PSA will also grade these types of sketch cards and note that they are Artist Proofs on the labels.
Topps 2024 Baseball Series 1 Trading Card Artwork
For quite a few years I’ve created baseball artwork for Topps. Every year I’m invited to create sketch cards that are randomly inserted into packs of Series 1, 2, and Update. I’ve also worked on Museum Collection, Gallery, and Gypsy Queen.
For the Series 1, 2, and Update sets, also called ‘Flagship’ sets, Topps wants only active MLB players to be depicted on the cards. I can draw pretty much whoever I please on one of my artist proofs but this year I thought I’d begin with painting three high profile current players. The first, Elly De La Cruz is one of the most highly anticipated rookie cards for this set and it’s the first time I’ve been able to draw him for Topps. Keeping in step with the idea of firsts, the other two AP cards feature players in their new uniforms -Ohtani and Soto. While there were no photos of these players playing in their new jerseys I took older photos of them and then re-imagined what their jersey and helmets would look like in their new team colours and logo.