Being Canadian, the lore of hockey is always present. Each decade has its share of great players, eccentric characters and their memorable stories. I see older photos and am always tempted to draw the players... the hair, style, the equipment. Some of it seems just too ridculous, playing hockey with no helmets, glorious manes of hair waving in the breeze(the flow). Even specific parts of equipment that were brief fads, that can instantly date when a player was in action.

I decided to do a few classics to start out, just loosely sketching them so that they were more character and less portrait. Legendary rushing defenseman Bobby Orr from the Big Bad Bruins and sniper Mike Bossy from the early 80's Islander dynasty both had unique looks in their day. After finishing up the brush work, I added some splashes of watercolour to liven things up, and give a feel for team colours.

There's a cool initiative that's been happening for a few years called InkTober. I'm not sure why I've only just heard about it, but basically for the month of October, artists from the world over, contribute drawings trying to produce a drawing day.

I haven't really kept up with the pace, but here's a brush pen sketch of Buffalo from this month. I'm always intrigued by Buffalo driving through it, seeing it's different areas. The revitalized downtown with arena and ballpark, the waterfront, the faded Rust Belt factories, the dense urban decay and the older spires and deco buildings that remind me of Gotham.