It's a great day for hockey.

I have a confession to make. Okay, it isn't much of one to anyone who knows me. But... I love hockey.

Yes. I love hockey.

I can't really explain how I came about getting into hockey. (Ice hockey, to be specific.) I didn't grow up in a hockey dominated area, though I did drag my friends and family to a lot of Western Hockey League games. I like the sport because it's still got a bit of a misfit underground feel to it, at least in America. It is an exciting, faced paced game, and the sounds of the sticks, skates and the smell of the ice just make it awesome. Not to mention those spooky-ass goalie masks, especially the old school ones. Every year, I try to make a point of seeing at least one live hockey game, be it major league or minor league. Now that I'm permanently living in Europe, I catch them when visiting my fiance's family in Sweden.

I have followed Pittsburgh Penguin hockey for years now. In fact, I will own up to my past of teenage fan art, courtesy of the awesome RJ Ackerman at letsgopens.com -- he still keeps up some artwork that I did when I was about 19 years old. It does support the theory that artists DO get better at their craft with age. Mario or Jaromir (back when he was in Pittsburgh and had that awesome mullet...) ASCII art anyone? In my defense, I was practically a kid and it was the mid 90s. I think they were meant to be tongue in cheek, though I did have someone actually email me and tell me that those pictures were an embarrassment to Penguins hockey.

Things seem more upbeat this year, just a couple of days before the Pens were on the verge of sweeping the Ottawa Senators, I made a spoof logo with the Penguins classic logo...(SO glad they got rid of the Bank Penguin Logo...that was just bad news) but instead of the hockey stick, I gave the penguin a broom. I posted it on myspace and sent it along to some other fellow Penguin fans.

This is the thing that really freaks me out about the internet.

This:


Became THIS.


A getty images news photograph posted on Yahoo news. So, to the random Penguins fan in Ottawa that used my little spoof artwork, thanks for the laugh and rock on, dude. It's like I was there in spirit.





P.S. And if anyone has spare tickets to the fall game in Stockholm, email me!!!

Diversion on a work in progress

Because sometimes life just makes you feel that way.

Christopher Walken Narrates the Raven

Maybe because it's Oscar season, but as I mentioned before I recently decided to do a Christopher Walken series. I'm a big fan of Walken, because he's an actor that is in his line of work simply because he loves what he does, and is a true craftsman at his art. There isn't much the man can't do as an actor, thespian, SNL comic, and of course, a dancer. I heard an audio file where he narrated Poe's "Raven" and I thought it would be neat to do some kind of booklet jacket or the like. It's one of those works you do simply because you can, and has no actual commercial merit though it does show what kind of work is of interest to you.

I was in an appropriately gloomy and pissy mood when I started this illustration a while back.