The Art of Cards: Topps Game Within the Game Continues to Grow Under Paul Jennis

The Topps Game Within the Game project launched in 2020 and continues through 2022. The first series was 12 unique painting cards sold on demand for $7.99 each month on the Topps website. The quantity of each card sold determined the print runs. Special 10-by-14-inch prints numbered to 99 and a print hand-numbered to 1 of each painting are also available. Paul Jennis is the artist bringing the players to life.

Jennis captures a small action pose against a large portrait image to capture the essence of each player. One of his goals is to portray something that’s never been on a baseball card, such as the image of Jackie Robinson shaking Branch Rickey’s hand after signing his historic contract with the Dodgers. The action poses for the 2021 Shohei Ohtani artwork shows him pitching and hitting. Randy Johnson’s intensity shows through on his card, as he stares you down over his glove in the background while he fires a fastball with his recognizable snarl in the foreground.

So far, the Wader Franco card in the 2022 series has the highest print run at more than 24,000 copies. Second place is not even close. That would be the 2022 Julio Rodriguez with 11,046. Third is the 2021 Ohtani with a quantity of 7,572.

New for 2022 are special foil cards limited to 99 copies. These are randomly sent out.

We chatted with Jennis about his experience creating the paintings and seeing the popularity of the cards in the hobby. He shared his creative process and described how the artwork has evolved since the 2020 series. He also runs a Facebook group for fans and collectors of the sets, posting announcements, contests and pictures of his work.

Beckett Media: What has your experience been from an artist’s perspective seeing your work turned into collectible cards?

Paul Jennis: “It was interesting coming into this collectible sports market. As much as I knew about sports and baseball in general, I wasn’t as familiar with some of the current players and some of the Rookie Cards and who was important. So, I started off more on my own. As far as a visual presentation, we kept the small player with the action shot, and then the big portrait, that gave me a chance to focus on the likeness—the kind of power, the swing, the pitch, whatever that was—remained as the focus for the small player.”

BM: How has the artwork evolved since the debut in 2020?

PJ: “The evolvement terms of the style, the first year was a little more of Leroy Nieman explosive brushstroke all over the place. The second year became more of a soft-focus background, which made the player pop out a little more three-dimensionally. And this year is even more so three-dimensionally. It’s more high-contrast images that we’re choosing. I tried to get them to pop off the page.

“I still keep the color elements that I started from the first year, in the soft-focus background. In the beginning, it was more whatever was behind the player. This year, I use those wielding circles, which help me compose and get an energy feel off the player. I tried to use those colors that are in the uniforms and the player skin, and really compose the art around that, too. I want the image to jump off the page. I want to keep adding new elements and evolve, but I want it to be a natural evolvement.”

BM: Can you take us through the process of choosing images and creating the paintings?

PJ: “When we finally decide on the names, I look at the all the pictures, which is usually 100 pages of photos. There are two things I’m looking for. I’m looking for one that captures a certain look of the player, whether it be an intensity or a smile. Also, things that aren’t bad imperfections—ones that don’t have ugly shadows on it. It’s got to be a clean photo. There’s no such thing as a perfect photo.

“Once I pick, let’s say 30 photos, I bring them into Photoshop and I look them over again, narrow that to maybe five or six. From there, if there’s one I particularly like, I make sure there are no bad imperfections. This year, I’m looking for high contrast. Then, I’ll do some corrections of my own if it is a bad shadow or something’s just not right.

“Sometimes I’ll run it through Tony [Bianchini] and my creative director, I get their feedback. But in the end, I’m the one who actually makes that final decision. Because I know from a painting standpoint, visually, which one’s going to still work the best. After that I compose it in Photoshop. I find a small figure that will work in that composition. This year, you’ll notice the smaller player is zoomed in more, and there’s no strobing action. So, you do get a little bit more of a better likeness of the smaller player, because the head’s bigger so I can get the details.

“I compose that, along with some background elements. Once I have that, it’s a photo sketch, which I usually compose in Photoshop and send off to my creative director. Once he gives me a go-ahead, then do the painting, but there’s a lot of preliminary work that’s done just before. The painting part is not easy, it’s hard, but the hardest part is making sure I get the right choices, the composition, something interesting, maybe something a little different. All that is done in the preliminary work. That painting is not automatic. I would say preliminary work is just as important as the finish of the painting itself.”

BM: The first 2020 series cards had a white border, but the 2021 and 2022 cards are full-bleed images. What was the thinking behind that?

PJ: “I definitely will give Tony full credit on that. That was one of the first things he mentioned, since it looks like such a fine art piece, that the quality of the colors and the work itself would look so much better if it was done on a gloss card full-bleed. It looks like a little painting they were receiving. We tried to see if we could do it on the art print, but that wasn’t possible for that. But I think it’s beautiful. It just makes the color come to life. I’m real happy with that.”