Here is a piece that I have been working on now for quite a while. (Too damn long if you ask me!)

First some background.

We were having our bathroom renovated a few years back and we had hired a father son team to do the job. They were great, enthusiastic about doing it and even made some valuable suggestions. One day I came home from school as they were just finishing up for the day and we got talking. They commented on some of the art that was "lying around", which was mine, and how much they liked it.

We talked some more and at some point the son, who was about my age, asked me about doing something for him. A hockey piece. He was a big fan of the Wayne Gretzky era Edmonton Oilers and wanted a piece of art based on them.

I had had the idea of a custom portfolio case, I wanted to turn a classic radio cabinet into my portfolio case. I couldn't do it on my own and didn't know who to contact.

I suggested the idea of exchanging services; He make me my portfolio case and I make him a piece of art. He was more then happy to accept.

This is the drawing that I used to show him what I wanted to do. He had given me a list of who he wanted in the drawing and I managed to "fit" them in. I suppose you could debate about who was included/ not included. I mean Glenn Anderson was a pretty strong part of those teams. Andy Moog, Esa Tikkanen etc. (Talk amongst yourselves)

And this is what I have done on it so far.

I really like the way that it is going so far, but it is terribly time consuming. No short cuts here..ya' gotta put the time in to get it looking right.

It is a very different head space when you are doing this type of work then doing work on the computer. It can be mentally tiring.

I think that I am making excuses as to why I haven't finished it yet.

Derek, honest, I am going to finish it at some point.