Johnny Bower Goalie
I just uploaded my latest digital painting called Johnny Bower, Goalie. The digital painting is based on a photo attachment to an email my bother sent to a group of his friends who are also into hockey.
The original photo was taken from the rafters looking straight down at the Johnny Bower, goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs. I don’t know who took the original photo, but it’s a great picture of Bower after he made the save – the puck is over to his right.
Hockey Goalie Masks
What is amazing is Johnny Bower played goal during a time when goalies did not wear a mask on their face. When I was a kid, I remember reading a Life magazine article on the dangers of being an NHL goalie. In the accompanying photograph illustration, Life magazine hired a make-up artist to paint all the places on Detroit Red Wings goalie, Terry Sawchuck’s face where he had stitches from pucks hitting his face.
After Jacque Plante introduced the facemask (in 1959),
Boston Bruins goalie Gerry Cheevers used to mark his goalie mask with the black stich marks showing where the puck hit his mask. By the end of Cheever’s career, the mask was covered with black marks.
Since then, the hockey goalie mask has evolved to become more protective. They’ve also become works of art. Would you believe, some company is selling a current goalie mask with Gerry Cheever stitches painted on the mask!
PBS: I found these other images on the Internet. They are not mine, they are used to illustrate the column.
Digital Painting
During the email that contained the original picture, John made a comment about the picture looking like a painting. Well, during last week Washington Capital hockey games verses the Penguins and the Oilers, I took up the challenge and created the digital painting based on the photograph. Create using Adobe Photoshop I used the original photo as a guide to get the perspective correct. Then I completed the rest by hand, trying to emulate the original photo. I like the graphic quality of the digital painting. With plenty of open space at the top for text, it’s perfect as an illustration for a hockey article.
P.B.S. Studios
To see this and other digital paintings and photographs, go to the Gallery Section of my website, www.pbsstudios.com. You can purchase this and many digital paintings and photographs through my Etsy store or by contacting P.B.S. Studios. Use the Contact form to contact P.B.S. Studios.
P.B.S. Studios is a feature and content writer/photography/digital painting company written and published over a hundred articles for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. I’ve also had many other photographs published as illustrations in commercial and textbooks publications. As a digital photo-painter, I’ve had my work displayed in shops, libraries, galleries, restaurants, commercial buildings (including Manassas City Hall) in addition to banners.