Many readers have wondered – how does an artist break into the NHL market painting masks? Well, you can’t just have a web site and a sign saying “Goalie Mask Painting – $500 and up.”

Many budding artists will paint a design for a goalie and send it his way, hoping it will excite them and get used in a game. Once they have an “in” a cool design might well get seen by other pros and the magic of word of mouth marketing takes over.

Artist FX Allaire has an “in” to get his masks seen, so he did this cool design in hopes that Roberto Luongo would like it. What do you think? Please cast your vote and we’ll try to get word to Roberto!

To see more great work by FX visit his web site FXkustomART.com

Please leave a note in the comments – Why yes? Why no?

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Should Luongo use this mask with the Canucks?

Artist Todd Miska of Miska Designs recently sent s along this great image of Nabby’s new Sharks mask.

Apparently assistant trainer Wes Howard came up with the idea of Poseidon, God of the Sea and Sharks swimming around him and the California seal on the back. The seal, which looks like some of the sickest work on the mask, includes the names of Nabby’s two kids.

For Kari Lehtonen’s new mask after being obtained by the Dallas Stars, Dave Gunnarson produced a remarkable Clint Eastwood tribute – some incredible photorealistic work.

Daveart tells it best:

“The whole design is created as an old fashion film poster for a cowboy film. On one side we see Mr Eastwood motifs created in sepia look and golden tints, one with a young Clint and one with a slightly older. The design is created with a fantastic depth, strongly inspired by Eastwood’s films, in particular the great film Unforgiven.

The golden base changes into green as we take a look at the other side, where the Dallas Stars logo makes its mark and creates a cool look to the whole. On this side you can also see a motif of Clint with an ox whip, just like in the film, painted with old school oil paint tech.

The final touch that makes the design complete and creates a new smashing hit design for Lehtonen is the addition of the bullet holes here and there. A design with extreme detail work created with freehand airbrush technique.”

The great artwork is courtesy of inGoal Magazine friend Dave Gunnarsson. Check out all of Dave’s great work at DaveArt.com.

Follow him on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook.

(Images copyright and courtesy of Dave Gunarsson, All Rights Reserved)

Artist FX (François-Xavier) Allaire Creates Bold “Ice Age” Look for Giguere in Toronto

FX Allaire has been an airbrush artist since he was 14. Last year he opened a business in Mirabel, QC. He is working largely with European goalies and his business is growing – but he has had one all-star client for wsome time now. Allaire did Giguere’s last mask in Anaheim and was quickly commissioned to do a new one when Brian Burke acquired Allaire Giguere for the Leafs recently.

FX sent me a few words about the new design recently.

“Each goalie is different, sometimes a two minute chat can lead to a design idea. Some guys are more picky and want something in particular that is meaningful to them. J.S. Giguere always wants a simple bold design that represents his devotion to his team.”

“For Giggy’s mask I had a short talk with him and we discussed a design concept. Since he has been working with me for a few years for his designs he trusts me with the final result. He told me he wanted something white and blue to finish the season with. I thought of doing a “Ice Age movie” theme with big bold letters in ice and ice cracked all over the mask. On the sides you can see the city of Toronto all frozen with ice on the CN tower. On the chin his number received the same treatment with icy bold numbers. On both sides of the chin there are two half Canadian flags, one red and one blue to represent the Maple leafs logo “leafs nation”. On the back plate I painted his son’s initials.”

Please take a few minutes to visit FX’s web site – and if you’re in Mirabel, look him up to discuss your next design.

If you have visited Molson Canadian Hockey House during the Olympics, you’ll see some giant “elephant masks” with Hockey Canada and IIHF themes there. They are dramatic to say the least – and are the creation of Gerald McLaughlin of VOODOOAIR Airbrushing.

Gerald produced a video to detail the creation of these giant masks – it’s realy interesting and gives you an idea of how artists work on actual goal masks – all be it on a very different scale. The film is professionally done and well worth a look.

Members of the Canadian men’s and gold medal winning women’s teams have been signing the masks – and they’ll be auctioned off for charity. Check out this EBay Auction to see how you can get your hands on one – I can’t imagine a better addition to your man-cave at home, your local arena, or as I imagined – as a head board for my goalie-obsessed 3-yr old son.

You’ll see Gerald’s work elsewhere in the Olympic Games – on Canadian Skeleton racers Melissa Hollingsworth and Jeff Pain’s helmets. Pain’s in particular has become a real trademark  - the sight of the raging Canadian Beaver flying down the track is well known in sliding circles. It’s nice to see the individual styles we have come to love on goaltenders over the years beginning to take hold in other sports as well.

In fact, Gerald is the only artist licensed to paint catcher’s masks for Major League Baseball. They want much tighter control over the designs used and their image than is currently possible in the wide open NHL (think Ray Emery / Mike Tyson mask!).

Check out VOODOO AIRBRUSHING to learn more about Gerald and his sports work – and to see more about his other fine art he also operates SMOKINART.COM.

All images courtesy of VOODOO AIRBRUSHING.

For more Olympic Goalie Masks check out our roundup.

Jaroslav Halak has had a terrific Olympic tournament so far, entering the semi-final tonight with a 1.97 GAA. He has taken down the Russians and now the Swedes – and Halak is hoping to make it a hat trick with tonights game against Canada.

We have seen lots of attention drawn to his Olympic mask – so we have a few great shots for you tonight. We first found it, and a description of its imagery on a fan board  HF Boards:

“One side features Vladimir Dzurilla, perhaps the greatest goaltender in the history of Slovak hockey. The other side is Juraj Janosik, a Slovak folk hero, along the same lines as Robin Hood.”

and on the back:

“The High Tatra mountain range.”

We haven’t yet tracked down the artist – if you know, please leave a note in the comments. Turns out the mask was done by inGoal friend David Arrigo. We hadn’t heard back from David during the Olympics as he was busy working on an Official Olympics mural in Vancouver for the week – adding every Canadian Gold Medallist which meant the last few days must have been crazy!

The Vancouver Sun today has a nice piece on Halak and also refers to the design on his Olympic helmet. In it they note that,

“There is no question that Halak, 24, has been oppressed in his brief pro goaltending career — and there’s also no doubt he’d like to invoke the spirit of the now-deceased Dzurzilla and shove another bagel down the collective throat of Team Canada in tonight’s Olympic semifinal game.”

Thanks to s.yume for these and so many other fantastic Olympic Hockey photos, used with permission.

David Gunnarsson was given the assignment by Peter Budaj to create his Slovakian mask for the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Peter and David discussed ideas back and forth, and out came a design on which Peter wanted to celebrate his hometown in Slovakia.

During Canada’s first men’s Olympic hockey game vs. Norway than man sitting on the bench behind starter Roberto Luongo was not the man who has done so all season for the Vancouver Canucks. Rather than Andrew Raycroft, it was the man who holds just about every all-time goaltending record – Martin Brodeur.

Raycroft has slid into our Olympic goalie masks reviews though tonight with his Canucks mask that has its own Olympic theme. The detail work is quite something – notice the First Nations artwork on the white background, for example.

Andrew’s mask was done by Gerald McLaughlin of  VooDoo Airbrushing in Ajax, Ontario. Check out this great article all about the mask and Raycroft’s near complete lack of interest in what goes on them!

“To be honest, I’ve never really cared,” smiled Raycroft, each pearly white in place. “It’s always in the middle of the summer when you have to think of something for the design and that’s really the last thing you’re thinking about is what you want painted on your mask.”

“Obviously I’m not going to play on any more teams that have the Olympics in their city in my career, so I thought I’d put some Canadian Olympic sports on it.”

All photos by Scott Slingsby

David Gunnarsson of Daveart.com, who recently brought us Semyon Varlamov’s newest Washington Capitals mask, created the young Russian’s mask for the Vancouver Olympics as well. . The Russian double-headed eagle is watching over the mask and spreading its wings. It’s created with a graphic look with a metallic sharpness. The metallic look gives a violent feeling while the red base highlights the entire design.