Discover Topps Artist Matt Stewart
It’s not uncommon for Matt Stewart to receive random direct messages via social media.
He will hear from card collectors who enjoy the artwork he sketches for Topps. When 2023 Topps Museum Collection Baseball was released, Stewart was sent a special note on X.
It included the message: “The card is awesome. It looks so sick.”
Texas Rangers third baseman Josh Jung shared those cordial words. The top 50 prospect in baseball—who is an avid card collector—saw the card Stewart painted of him for the Museum Collection set.
Stewart also receives positive feedback about his work from family members of professional baseball players. The mom of Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is a huge supporter of her son and keeps close tabs on what card products he appears in.
“She messaged me once and said, ‘I love seeing my son being drawn on baseball cards,’” Stewart said. “It’s such a trip. She sends all that kind of stuff to her son as well.”
Getting His Shot
Stewart, whose day job is as a marketing coordinator at an energy company, has been a contracted Topps artist since 2014. A resident of Calgary, Alberta, he is a big baseball fan.
Stewart worked on his first set for Topps 10 years ago: Star Wars cards from the Revenge of the Sith Widevision release. Since that first assignment, Stewart believes he’s contributed drawings for every Star Wars product except one.
Interested in being one of the Topps artists for baseball cards, Stewart got his shot six years ago. Now, he’s a regular for illustrating any baseball products.
“I’ve worked on all the Flagship, Gallery, and Museum Collection every year since then,” Stewart said. “It started in 2018. I did the Museum Collection Shohei Ohtani rookie card for that.”
Stewart enjoys working on cards for baseball and Star Wars, two of his favorite things. He’s comfortable drawing both subjects.
“I’m familiar with a lot of the players; I’m familiar with many of the actors and the storylines,” Stewart said. “I really enjoy diving a little bit deeper into it.”
Over the years, Stewart has also drawn for products of UFC, Garbage Pail Kids, Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Being able to be a Topps artist for the last decade still feels a little surreal for Stewart. It often brings him back to that first set he worked on.
“I was taking it in for the moment,” Stewart said. “I was super excited. I was like, ‘Yes. Awesome. Feather in my cap.’ It’s what I’d been working for — I had been applying for like the Star Wars projects. I never envisioned I’d be working on projects 10 years later, especially having my artwork published on baseball cards.”
A Unique Approach
When Topps offers Stewart an opportunity to contribute drawings for a release, he enjoys taking an unconventional path.
He’ll look through team rosters for baseball products and select good players who may not get as much recognition as some superstars. One of Stewart’s favorites to sketch is St. Louis Cardinals utility man Tommy Edman. Stewart is also a big fan of catchers, so he likes to highlight the guys behind the plate, most notably Raleigh.
“A lot of times it’s just like looking up who the fan favorites are, not the big, marquee names,” said Stewart, whose artwork can be found on his website mattstewartillustrations.com.
Stewart enjoys drawing retired players as well, especially Cardinal greats Stan Musial and Bob Gibson. He likes to work on sketches of a variety of players to keep it fresh and fun.
“I think fans appreciate that,” Stewart said. “Where, like, if I’m working on a baseball set, I try and make sure to knock off a player from every team. I want to see everything represented, even though I’m a Cardinals fan and a Blue Jays fan. I want to make sure even the Cubbies are getting some of their players out there.”
Stewart took a unique approach to picking out players to draw for the 2024 Series 1 Baseball Flagship product.
“I was like, wouldn’t it be cool if I did the oldest players in the league?” Stewart said. “So, I looked up the oldest active players, like Greinke. They were like in their 40s, so I drew all of them.”
Stewart produced 30-35 cards for Series 1 Baseball this year; he also worked on cards for Series 2. Stewart tends to take on more cards for Museum Collection — about 50 to 60 — because it’s his favorite product.
“It’s premium card stocks. It’s super thick,” Stewart said. “It takes wet mediums really well, which I quite like. I spend a little more time on it. It’s a premium product.
“But, also, Topps Series 1 is really fun. That’s the first project that you do for the season.”
Like Seeing Your Own Cards
Stewart always gets a thrill when he sees the final product of his drawings, which are made into cards.
“It’s awesome. I love it,” he said. “One of my favorite sets, and I think a lot of the other artists’ favorite sets, was Topps Gallery. Seeing our artwork on those sets — a full art set. Museum Collection has that insert set every year, and last year I had like 10 cards included in that set with my artwork.”
A true collector, Stewart is old school in that he enjoys hand-collating sets of Series 1 and 2 baseballs every year. He is always quick to buy packs of his favorite baseball products, but Stewart doesn’t rip products to search for cards he drew.
“I’m not really going for my own art,” Stewart said. “I’m super critical of my own art. I don’t want to pull my card. I want someone else to find it. I’ll look at it and be like, ‘Man, I could have done that better.’”
Stewart feels fortunate to have worked for Topps for 10 years. He doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
“I still enjoy it,” he said. “I love having people contact me or post online. They’re like, ‘Oh, found your sketch card. It’s really cool.’
“We’ll see where it takes me. As long as the art directors keep reaching out, I’ll keep working on the sets.”
