2014 Playoffs Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Columbus Blue Jackets

I'm starting off the 2014 playoff series with the Penguins vs Blue Jackets. I did the NHL bracket challenge on NHL.com before the playoffs and even though I didn't think the Penguins would make the Finals I liked the match ups that I predicted for them and had them going to the cup, but I also picked the Kings in the finals in the west which is not looking too hot.

For round 1 my pick was Penguins over Blue Jackets in 5 games. I bet on Fleury having a better playoff, 2 games in he's not too bad but not great either which is good because last year he was just losing the games for the Penguins, right now I think it's defense that's the question for the Penguins because how many time to you let a guy whack at the puck in front of the net without doing anything on the game 2 OT goal? I didn't like Horton being out for the Jackets either, he could've been a big player for them in the playoffs, I think if he was playing it could be a different series and the Blue Jackets would have a better chance at winning.

So here are my digital drawings of the Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and the Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

Marc-Andre Fleury

Sergei Bobrovsky

Hockey comic book covers

A few weeks ago I got inspired to recreate comic book covers with a hockey theme, my 1st imagining was recreating the 1st spider-man cover and thought of adding Alex Ovechkin mainly due to the same color palate of their uniforms. After that, the start of the Olympics took over and I created a few Olympic themed covers, featuring Sidney Crosby as Bane in a recreation of the Knightfall cover, and of course Zach Parise as Captain America and finally Jonathan Toews in a recreation of Wolverine #1.  All of these covers I drew and colored digitally.

Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby Art

This is a mixed media piece I recently created of Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby , Crosby is drawn in pencil then scanned and I colored digitally.

Sidney Crosby

Hockey Art: Kelly Ackerman

I'm taking a bit of a break on my art work now, I have some other projects to work on, and just sit and soak in the Cup finals, in the mean time, Kelly sent me an e-mail linking me to her tumblr site which she has several pieces of her work posted, I was quite impressed. There are several high quality portraits posted, there are a few non hockey ones (and just a few) but I would urge you to spend some time going though her tumblr and view all her portraits, especially if you're a Penguins fan!  Kelly is a Pittsburgh-based portrait artist and graphic designer. She started drawing Penguins in 2009, would frame the originals and gift them to the players if they stopped after practice or a game, so far she's given one to Crosby, Orpik, Fleury, Rupp, Dupuis, Letang, Talbot and Cooke. I might suggest drawing a portrait of Fleury making a save and give that one to him for positive reinforcement (couldn't hurt).  And sure anyone could do that, I doubt any NHL player would refuse a gift such as that from a fan, but as a testament to her work, Talbot contacted her later and ended up using her portrait of his infamous "shhhh" pose for the artwork on t-shirts he sold through his website. I posted that piece and my favorites below be sure to check her out http://kellyackermanart.tumblr.com

 

Maxime Talbot

Evgeni Malkin

Jordan Staal

 

 

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2: Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators

This has been a pretty good series to watch, Ottawa is challenging the Penguins with a lot of their quick young skaters and showing us that are some weaknesses on defense for the Penguins however Vokoun has played very well in replacing Fleury, while Anderson has looked very strong for the most part almost stealing game 3.
 
Here are 2 more of my art pieces of Sidney Crosby of the Penguins and Erik Karlsson of the Senators.

Sidney Crosby

Erik Karlsson

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Pittsburgh Penguins vs New York Islanders

This has been a surprising series in that it hasn't been a sweep by the Penguins. While the Penguins dominated game 1 and then got Crosby back for game 2 which they lost by showing the flaws that killed them in last years playoff vs the Flyers, shaky goaltending and defense. Game 2 was so much different from game 1 which appeared to maybe be the exception to the rule as game 3 is currently heading into overtime and the Islanders were able to fight back to tie the game at 4. This is looking to be a good series to see how far the Islanders can take this. So here is a piece by Jim Link featuring Sidney Crosby and my piece featuring Evgeni Nabokov.

Sidney Crosby

Evgeni Nabokov

Hockey Art by Michael Slotwinski

Michael sent me a link to his website: Slots Art Studio. Michael has several works of art in the galleries on his site, and quite a few pieces for the hockey enthusiast. Most of his works are goalies, particularly their masks, he has some really nice pieces here, my favorite probably being Bernie Parent due to the lighting and use of shadows and less for the subject matter (not a flyers fan) he makes Parent look more intimidating than he already was for opposing shooters . Be sure to check out his site and browse yourself. Thanks for linking us to your website Michael!

Here are a few of my favorites from his site...

Martin Brodeur

Bernie Parent

Sidney Crosby

2012 Playoffs Penguins Vs. Flyers

Well this series has been the most talked about series of round 1. The goal-tending has been awful for both teams and I have to think if Fleury is able to play as well as he normally does the Penguins would've already won the series, but the only dimension of either team that has played well in this series is the offense. I believe the turning point of this series is the blown off sides call on Briere in game 1, although not the only reason the Penguins lost that game, it certainly changed the style of play both teams played during the rest of the game, Flyers were within 2 and Penguins were playing prevent defense, and after the comeback the Flyers had all the momentum which gave the flyers belief whenever they get down they could always come back...unless the Penguins score 10 somehow, that would be pretty tough, but not impossible in this series.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin

Claude Giroux

NHL sock Posters!

Katie Submitted some artwork pertaining to Hockey socks. Her poster focuses on each teams sock design. It's a pretty cool poster to have for a rec room and could even be considered appropriate for other parts of the house...May need additional approvals. This is a very nice and unique idea that makes something cool out of simple sock designs. Take a look at her website where you can even buy a whole NHL team poster was well as individual Pittsburgh Penguins Here.

NHL All-stars old and new: Ovechkin, Jagr, Lemieux

With the NHL All-Star weekend upon us, here are some more works from Jim link featuring some all-stars past and present.

Alex Ovechkin

Jaromir Jagr

Mario Lemieux

Hockey in Art Contest: The Winner

Well the voting ended last week and the numbers have spoken...the Winner is Scott! Who entered his baby food artwork of Sidney Crosby, which was previously featured. For those of you that don't know Scott runs the website Fogoos.com which features artwork made out of food, with a large variety of subjects be sure to take a look. Again Special thanks to The Fan Zoo for sponsoring the contest with the prize, be sure to check out their site and browse around, a great place to get memorabilia for any hockey fan.

Hockey in Art Contest sponsored by The Fan Zoo

Here are all 4 entries for the Hockey in Art Contest, Hurry up and vote in the poll to the right. Winner receives a $50 gift certificate for The Fan Zoo!

Contestant 1.  Shelly Bryant, a Prisma coloured  pencil drawing of Alex Burrows.

Contestant 2.  Leauphaun, a pencil drawing of Henrik Sedin

Contestant 3. Scott from foogos, Sidney Crosby, Black: prunes (surprisingly delicious)  Gold: squash (Surprisingly horrific…do  not give this to your babies) White/cream: bananas with apples and pears (unsurprisingly enjoyable)

Contestant 4. Nick, Marker illustration of Carey Price, and touched up  in Photoshop.

Voting goes to December 15th, winner will be announced on the 16th.

Foogos: Sidney Crosby...or crosbaby?

Alright I am a Sidney Crosby fan, no matter how many times he has upset me making a fool of Ryan Miller in the 1st Winter Classic and the Olympics, but he's just really good and I'm partial to the Penguins having lived in Pittsburgh for years. Scott over at Foogos Here created this portrait of Sidney Crosby out of baby food I just had to post it, the underlining meaning of using baby food, poking fun that a lot of the Crosby haters refer to him as a bit of a baby, just great. What makes Scott's projects so interesting is not only that it's logos or artwork out of food is the underlying meaning of the type of food used for the particular piece that puts his work above any other food related art work...if there is any.

Mini Goalie Mask: Pittsburgh Penguins

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 25, The Pittsburgh Penguins mini goalie mask

Penguins Crafts

I love when someone sends in different types of art related to hockey. When I started this blog this would probably have been on the list I would never expect to have seen on it. Ally from http://www.tiicklemepiinkk.blogspot.com/  has submitted these photos of different types of art work all tying into the Pittsburgh penguins from cakes to garbage cans and a hello kitty Jordan Staal...why not? quite the show of being a Pens fan.

2011 NHL Playoffs: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

Penguins won last night in double OT to take a 3-1 series lead. Here are the Goaltenders of the series Penguins Marc-Andre Fleury and the Lightnings Dwayne Roloson

Sidney Crosby airbrushed hat from Chuck

Chuck sent me these pictures of a hat that he made into a piece of art work. airbrushing Sidney Crosby one side and the Penguins logo on the other. very unique piece, good work chuck and thanks for sending it in!

Sidney Crosby: Winter Classic

Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins playing in the Winter Classic tonight

Sidney Crosby

Stephen Slesinski from The Pensblog

I absolutely love his work, He has been doing graphics for a blog that I love to read The Pensblog and his website is here. One of my favorite hockey artists that I've seen around, it inspired me to work on some of the goalie series that i've been working on for each NHL team. here are my favorites from his sketch book on the Pens blog site.

Kris Letang

Sidney Crosby

Marc-Andre Fleury

Pond Hockey

Ron sent in this painting simple but says a lot, really nice. thanks!