I experimented quite a bit with the picture for this 1953 Topps card. The cards from the 1950’s had a noticeably painted look. I’m not sure if this was because of the inability for higher quality photography or if they actually painted all of the master pictures. Either way, they have a very distinct look. I tried to replicated this look with an autotrace feature in Illustrator and limited the amount of colors I used. I think I used something like 8 colors for the picture of Soria seen here.
The actual card is very basic but I tried to devote some time to getting an interesting look for the picture. I definitely don’t think I nailed this one but either way I was happy with the result and deemed it good enough to be my next chapter in the History of Joakim Soria.
A Hair Off Square 
I made a Konerko card from this set earlier in the week, but have not put it up yet just because of that painted look. I wanted to try a couple of more things first. Nice looking card though.
It really is a boring design without the texture on the picture. Also those early cards were all close shots and no action which can make it hard to get a card to look right for the set.
Agreed. I just tried my hand at my first ’53 card this week and could not pull off a decent “painted” shot. Will retry later.