The Great One by Matt Jurasewicz

And the lock out rolls on, and so does hockey art posts featuring past NHL players, another look back at those that made us love the game and inspired to create art work surrounding it to capture our love for hockey. Matt is a regular contributor to the blog with his art work, here is his painting of The Great One, Wayne Gretzky.

Wayne Gretzky

The Art of Robert Hollaman

It's been a frustrating couple of weeks now with the lockout, I've been doing a number of things and focusing more of remembering some of the great players I watched growing up. So until the lock-out is over I think I'll be posting some "old-time" NHL related artwork other than current. Just in time Robert Hollaman linked me to his website which quite nicely fits into this theme for now. He also has artwork of other sports but a lot of really nice hockey related paintings, you can visit his website HERE

The Wilkinson Gallery

Dave sent me a link to his website The Wilkinson Gallery with images of his work, he has different types of artwork posted and of several different sports. As far as hockey related work there's mostly Philadelphia Flyers art work, pretty cool to browse around. Of all the hockey related artwork he has on his site, these two where my favorite ones. He has a great style to most of his work a few little effects to push the art into something more alive and organic.

Claude Giroux

Gordie Howe

 

Toronto Maple Leafs: James Reimer

Seems things are slowing down in NHL news, with training camp scheduled to open next week I'm hoping talks continue through the week and some sort of deal is reached to get the games in. We'll here is more of my artwork, Toronto Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer

SportsNic's part 2

Kevin sent in more of his SportsNics collection these are from his 09 collection featuring the Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens and the New Jersey Devils. There are more of these to come from each team from Kevin and for as many as he has and the simplistic design of the characters to the fine detail in the logos/equipment each one is a different pose.

Custom Mask: North Tonawnda High School Hockey

This will be my 3rd Custom mask that I painted. This one is for my alma mater the North Tonawanda High School hockey team. The Schools mascot is a lumberjack so I had a tree line across the mask withe a lumberjack on either side wielding an axe. The goaltender was the teams honorary captain much like Luongo was and wanted the "C" at the chin of the mask, so i wrote JACKS across the bottom making sure the C was in the middle and slightly larger than the other letters.

San Jose Sharks by Jim Link

Being that it is Shark week, here is some more artwork from Jim Link featuring San Jose Sharks and players Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Marc-Édouard Vlasic. Always love the style of Jims work be sure to check out his other artwork on the site.

Martin Brodeur by Jordan

Jordan Sent in this great pencil drawing she did of New Jersey Devils goalie of Martin Brodeur. Great drawing Jordan thanks!

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

Peter Forsberg AKA the Terminator by Diel

Diel Sent in this awesome airbrush piece of Peter Forsberg as the Terminator, alas we almost thought he was the terminator in his attempt to comeback and play in the NHL a few seasons ago only to last a few games, if he is a machine he should really look into getting his ankle replaced.

From Diel: Airbrush on a aluminum plate the one and only terminator in hockey history!!

2012 Playoffs Pathers Vs. Devils

The Devils eliminated the Panthers tonight in game 7. This has been another back and fourth series with both teams giving up multiple goal leads with most games within 1 goal, it's been a great 1st round now onto the next! So here are the goaltenders of the series Florida's Jose Theodore and New Jersey's Martin Brodeur.

Jose Theodore

Martin Brodeur

2012 Playoffs Rangers Vs. Senators

Another game 7 tomorrow between the Rangers and Senators which has been another unpredictable series in the East, the Rangers inability to score is showing in the playoffs, and like the Capitals did to the Bruins, just cashed in on heir chances I can see the Senators easily pulling an upset like the Capitals did tonight. So here is the New York Rangers forward Marian Gaborik and Ottawa Senators goalie Craig Anderson.

Marian Gaborik

Craig Anderson

2012 Playoffs Bruins Vs. Capitals

Game 7 is coming up tomorrow night between these two teams. This has been an up and down series for each team and can be a toss up for game 7. The Capitals came into the playoffs playing tight defense and have received great goaltending from Braden Holtby while capitalizing on their opportunities (pun intended) with some help by some shaky goaltending fro Tim Thomas. So here are two pieces featuring the Boston Bruins Tyler Seguin and the Washington Capitals Alex Ovechkin.

Tyler Seguin

Alex Ovechkin

2012 Playoffs Coyotes Vs. Blackhawks

Earlier tonight the Phoenix Coyotes eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks 4 games to 1. The big story in this series was Goaltending, Mike Smith was at the top of his game throughout the series. His counter part Corey Crawford was good most of the time but had a tendency to give up the bad goal here and there...two overtime goals come to mind. This sets up a 2nd round playoff in the west where each goalie is playing extremely well, Quick, Rinne, Smith and Elliot, this should be a very tight race to win the West. So here is the Coyotes enforcer Paul Bissonnette and Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp.

Paul Bissonnette

Patrick Sharp

2012 Playoffs Blues Vs. Sharks

Last night the St. Louis Blues eliminated the San Jose Sharks 4 games to 1. Most games in this series were close but the big guns on thee Sharks were unable to solve the Blues tight defensive play and great  goaltending. Looks like some big changes will need to be made for the Sharks for next year, they can't shouldn't blame Nemi for the loss, as he was inconstant during the season he was solid in the playoffs. So here are pieces featuring the St. Louis Blues David Perron who scored the GWG last night and San Jose Sharks Antti Niemi.

David Perron

Antti Niemi

2012 Playoffs Predators Vs. Red Wings

Earlier tonight the Predators eliminated the Red wings 4 games to 1. While each game was close, I thought the Wing would be able to push it to 7 Games. Although the Red wings aren't at their best in say Game for, this series shows how sound they are Defensively. I really like the Predators to go to the Western Finals, I can see them facing the Blues there and which ever team gets the breaks will go to the cup.

Pekka Rinne

Pavel Datsyuk

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

2012 Playoffs Canucks Vs. Kings

Finally back, been busy working on tons of drawings for the playoffs...Just like in years past I try to have one artwork for each team in the playoffs and a post with both of them, as always reader submissions are a great help and give different perspectives. So here...we...go!

So far this series is quite a surprise how the Canucks can't seem to get any offense for one of the most touted offensively talented teams. Kesler has gone down a couple notches in my belt from watching this series, he has been of my most respected players in the NHL, granted I don't see many Canuck games games being on the east coast but the blatant dives he has preformed over the series, just losses respect, I know all teams have players that dive and embellish but there's a certain level where your just shaking your head and Kesler for me has reached that level (and beyond). The  biggest reason the Kings are up 3-0 is because of Quick, he is one of my favorite goaltenders in the NHL to watch play, he's very acrobatic and isn't one of the straight up strictly butterfly goalies. He is always playing down low, its just fun to watch a different style and I hope it continues to work for him. Another story in the series has been Luongo, while I thought he played well so far in the series besides a few dribblers around the pads (I believe if he had smaller or form fitting pads a lot of those kinds of goals on him would go away, they just look too big and clunky) he was replaced by Schneider in game 3 which couldn't produce a win or a goal. Hopefully Luongo will be back for game 4 and the series goes on. Here are two drawings of  the goaltenders for the teams Roberto Luongo and Jonathan Quick.

Roberto Luongo

Jonathan Quick

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.

Erik Karlsson

Ottawa has been a surprise of the season so far although in recent weeks they've followed back to earth as well as in the standings, they did however beat the Lightning tonight 4-0 so maybe they aren't planning on falling out of the playoff push yet. Here is a sketch of Ottawas young star Defenseman Erik Karlsson

Erik Karlsson  

Goalie Mask #2: Buffalo Regals/Canisius

Well, finally I put everything together and here is the 2nd goalie mask I painted for Aaron Fanti who Plays for the Buffalo Regals 97 and will be playing for Canisius high school. Being new to airbrushing this was quite the challenge for me and I am more than pleased as how it came out, looks great on the ice. Here is a little photo montage of the final version and a photo slideshow of the process leading up to the final product.

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

David Perron By Jason

The St. Louis Blues have been on quite the roll since changing coaches and are now challenging for top spot in the west, and what looked to be an tense game (through highlights) tonight with a 1-0 win over the Dallas Stars. So Jason Sulier sent in this sketch of David Perron.

David Perron

The Joker Mask in High School Hockey

I'll have some more art post later in the week here is some interesting news in the meantime, you might recall last summer I painted my 1st goalie mask "The Joker" I have since done another (which I have yet to post) and currently working on two more. Well the Joker Mask made an appearance over western New York newspapers over the weekend from a High School tournament and North Tonawanda Starting goalie Austin Willison was all over the papers...I want to say the mask helped, take a look from The Buffalo News Here

 

And the Tonawanda News

Looks pretty good in action