Zemgus Girgensons

It all finally ends today, finally the worst year for a Sabres fan in history comes to a close and I can sit back and watch the St. Louis Blues steam roll... wait what? lost 5 in a row? Miller hasn't been that great? well hopefully they just resign him so we get the 1st round pick.

I'll be at the game and to send them off here is a piece I did of my pick for Sabres MVP Zemgus Girgensons. This was another one of my comic book cover meets NHL designs (it was based on an X-Men cover) but I decided to alter it slightly and not give it the full comic cover look and more like a poster of the player.

Zemgus Girgensons

Marcus Foligno Vs. Brenden Dillon Art

Marcus Foligno Returns for the Sabres tonight from what looked like a season ending injury late last week. Here is a pencil sketch of him going at Brenden Dillon of the Dallas Stars I did a few months ago, people have asked me to do some art work of a fight, I believe this may be my 1st.  

I've been piling up artwork to unleash for the playoff match ups, if you have any art work you want to submit featuring any of the playoff teams be sure to send it within the next few weeks and I'll include it in the match ups Nfg801@aol.com.

Marcus Foligno Vs. Brenden Dillon

Dominik Hasek Art

For long time followers of the blog and anyone that knows me personaly, you know Domink Hasek is my favorite NHL player of all time. It's nice to see the Sabres and Hasek have had a better relationship now than when he requested a trade to the Redwings, it probably has a lot to do with the new Sabres ownership, who is doing a great job in bring back Sabres alumni except a few *cough*Lafontaine*cough*.
Before tomorrows game the Sabres are inducting Hasek into their hall of fame and I made sure I got a ticket to attend. The Sabres also just announced today they will retire his number next season in which I'll be sure to attend as well.  So here is a recent art piece I recently did of the Dominator, drawn in ink and colored digitally. I got this piece printed on canvas and hanging up in my rec room, one of my favorites.

Ryan Miller: Traded but Sabres related Art anyway

Well it finally happened, the Buffalo Sabres have finally traded Ryan Miller and then the franchise feel apart as Pat Lafontaine "resigned" as President of Hockey Ops. So while my team tries to pick up the pieces with quite a few draft picks and a new GM in Tim Murray who I like so far, I'm a Blues fan for the rest of the way.

I think Ryan Miller will go down as my 2nd favorite goalie behind Hasek, for what he did in the mid 2000's with the Sabres are great memories for me as well as winning the Vezina in 2010 and what he did in the 2010 Olympics. I have a number of Ryan Miller Art work I haven't posted yet as I was looking through my archives, so here are 2 that I recently did this year. The 1st one was drawn in ink and colored digitally the 2nd was drawn all digitally.

Ryan Miller

Ryan Miller

2014 USA Ryan Miller art

Ryan Millers USA Olympic mask was recently released and I was inspired to do this mock up of yan Miller in olympic gear. This is one of my 1st works i drew 100% digitaly.

It looks like it's going to be a tough decision between Ryan Miller and Jonathan Quick to start for team USA. Although I am biased being a Sabres fan, I would start Miller just because of the experience and what he did in 2010. Either way USA should be solid in goal and I wouldn't mind if Quick started since he is my 2 favorite goalie to watch in the NHL.

Ryan Miller

Get ready for the 2013-2014 Hockey season!

Hello everyone,  I apologize for my absence the past couple months and thanks to everyone for visiting the blog, and a special thanks to everyone who submitted their art work I will be posting it all soon on a regular basis again now that the season is getting ever closer. I have had a busy summer and I’ve been working on pretty big project I’m excited about and will reveal it here soon once it’s ready to go, I’m sure all hockey fans/gamers/geeks/fantasy enthusiasts would appreciate this project.  I have also gotten back into doing some goalie mask painting I’ll make a post with some pictures of some of them.

Once again thank you to all the Hockey in Art supporters!

Dominik Hasek

Ryan Miller

There's a lot of questions up in the air with the Sabres roster right now starting with is the GM, Darcy Regier, even going to be here? What will be done with Vanek and Miller? Will there be any buyouts (Lenio, Stafford)? Personally I'd like them to keep Miller, I remember the years after Hasek and how long it took to get a quality goaltender that can play consistently, and I look at other teams with that problem. He has several more playing years and can last a re-build of the Sabres for a few years, as long as he would want to stay. So here is another one of my pencil drawings I dug up from a few years ago of Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres.

Ryan Miller

Ryan Miller

Dominik Hasek

The NHL is back, and I'm back I have several submissions I'll be getting around to posting over the next little while. For now here is a piece I did recently of the player that got me into the NHL and now that it's back I feel appropriate for the 1st post of the new season Dominik Hasek, who just before the lockout I had hopes ever so slightly of seeing him play once again in the NHL possibly even in the a Sabres uniform, I knew it wouldn't happen because it didn't make hockey sense, maybe if the Sabres still had Lalime.

Dominik Hasek

SportNic's

Kevin Lynch sent in a series of what he terms as SportNic's, it is a series of stylized goalie artwork for each NHL team that he drew by hand. I love the style and look of them and the team logos on the goalie pads as well as incorporated through out the equipment is a great touch although I don't believe they are all represented to be Chris Mason (See Jets pads). Kevin sent in several different samples of his SportsNic's from different teams, I'll post more at a later date, as Kevin says he is working on several more and a new series as far as how he came up with the style: "It's a character that comes out of years and years of sketching and playing Goalie." As well as creating these goalie ones for several different years he also has a VintageNic(59-80) Series, and a few smaller 'Nic Series, like Olympic,NCAA, and MN High School 'Nics. Thanks for sharing Kevin

Hockey in Art: Art Contest

I'm pleased to announce the 1st contest here on the Hockey in Art Blog. The Fan Zoo is sponsoring the contest and the winner will receive and online gift Certificate of $50 to their store. The Rules are simple as there aren't that many rules, just submit any hockey related artwork, any type of art work just has to be created buy you! That's it! E-mail me at NFG801@aol.com Submission period is now to December 12th, then I will take the submissions and have an old fashion vote off (all-star style) for the winner to be announced on December 15th! So hurry up and submit your work! Can be an easy way to turn your artwork into a great Christmas present!
Special thanks again to the Fan Zoo for making this possible, great people to work with check out their site Here.
Just to have some sort of Artwork here is a sketch I recently did of Ryan Miller in Pen...Nice to see he does have some fight in him after the Tootoo run.

Buffalo Jr. Sabres of the OJHL

Here is a piece that I created for a friend of mine Andrew Poturalski who is currently the leading scorer for the Buffalo Jr. Sabres and 5th in scoring in the OJHL but some how never scores in games that I attend, at least recently. Anyway if you're in the Buffalo area go down to the Northtown Center to cheer them on, print the picture and have him autograph it for you (he would be glad to) he's that good.

Mini Goalie Mask: Buffalo Sabres

I remember collecting those mini goalie mask key chains but didn't care for just the team logo printed on the top so I got inspired to paint a design based on the team logo on each mask. no these are from years ago (early 2000's I think) so some logos will be outdated but i think some of them are pretty cool. Here's number 17, The Buffalo Sabres mini goalie mask.

Gilles Meloche and Gerry Desjardins

Thomas sent in these cell phone pics of some sketches of old school goaltenders Gerry Desjardins former Buffalo Sabres net minder and Gilles Meloche sketched here as a California Seal. Thanks T

Gerry Desjardins

Gilles Meloche

2011 NHL Playoffs: Philadelphia Flyers vs. Buffalo Sabres

The series I mostly will be into Starts tonight when the Flyers host the Sabres here are the starting goalies for the series Sergei Bobrovsky and Ryan Miller.

Enroth the Ewok

There's a lot of buzz in the area about the Sabres rookie goalie Jhonas Enroth coming in and winning some big games and there have been some comparisons on various message boards likening him to an ewok, which I get so I figured why not.

ICA to screen Artists videos at Portland Pirates Games

I thought this is really cool piece of news in the world of art and hockey. Earlier this year the Buffalo Sabres had an art exhibit "Forty" at the Albright Knox Art gallery in Buffalo. The exhibit had video instillation's and photographs from the Buffalo Sabres collected over the teams 40 year history. Now the Sabres AHL affiliate the Portland Pirates are taking Art into the in game experience at select upcoming home games. The Pirates have collaborated with the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art to show video projects related to hockey on the Jumbo tron, for information check out this post:
http://www.meca.edu/news#ica-to-screen-videos-at-portland-pirates-games 

I believe this to be a great idea and hopefully more can come from this, maybe some NHL teams following suit, and introduce a more creativeness. It's definitely something different than the same old cookie cutter experience for fans. I look forward to other teams following this.

Thomas Vanek

A digital piece of Buffalo Sabres Thomas Vanek

Thomas Vanek

Ryan Miller and Paul Gaustad

Buffalo Sabres Ryan Miller and Paul Gaustad pencil sketches

Ryan Miller

Paul Gaustad

Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan miller

Digital artwork of  Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan miller

Ryan Miller

Ryan Miller, Johan Hedberg and Chris Mason

And something from the up and coming young artists. Andy submitted these drawings that his son Riley drew of Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres, Johan Hedberg of the New Jersey Devils and Chris Mason of the Atlanta Thrashers. Riley is 11 years old, keep at it Riley! Thanks

Ryan Miller

Johan Hedberg

Chris Mason