This was my first real collaboration with a professional sports team. I had just completed a portrait of Drew Doughty that summer and the LA Kings caught wind of it. They reached out to me on instagram saying that they had a potential project for me. They wanted to commission me to draw a gift to celebrate Drew's 1000 games played. I offered to draw my usual 11x14"...they said bigger. I offered 18x24", the largest I had ever done...they said bigger. At the time, the largest paper I could find was 22x30" so we went with that.
I remember coming up with the concept you see here. I think it was different from anything they had done before as they said they had some ideas, but really liked what I put together. It incorporated a lot of techniques that I was still practicing at that time including faded backgrounds, tiny faces, clean text work, and more. I also remember saying multiple times that I simply couldn't do it. The time constraints were simply too tight. However, saner heads prevailed and we successfully delivered the piece in time for the celebration.
Before it was unveiled, I had no idea that it was going to be the centerpiece to the event. I'm pretty sure I almost fainted when they pulled down the black curtain. It was at that moment that I knew I achieved my goal of being a successful sports artist.
Time to Draw: 132 hours
Medium: Graphite pencil on paper
Size: 22x30"
