Carmelo & Knicks Rock Lakers

Carmelo Anthony(Illustration by Steve Shoff) NEW YORK — Sensing a fellow shooter had become gun shy, Kobe Bryant had a message for Carmelo Anthony last summer. Ignore the critics, he said. Stop worrying about fitting in and get back to a scorer’s mentality. “You have to do what you do best,” Bryant told him…(Click to read the entire story at ESPN.com)

Phil Jackson; Hoops Zen Master Guru, Back to Lakers?

Phil_Jackson_LakersLOS ANGELES – Kobe Bryant still hasn’t gotten over the way his final season under then-Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson ended in a second-round sweep from the playoffs.

Bryant wants a chance to make up for it this season. He fully endorsed Jackson to fill the Lakers’ coaching vacancy caused by Mike Brown’s dismissal, following L.A.’s dominant 101-77 win over the Golden State Warriors on Friday.

“Phil, obviously, you guys know how I feel about Phil,” Bryant said. “The one thing that’s kind of always bothered me is that his last year, I wasn’t able to give him my normal self because I was playing on one leg. That’s always kind of eaten away at me that the last year of his career, I wasn’t able to give him everything I had.” (Click to read the entire article by Dave McMenamin at ESPN.com)

Kobe & New Lakers Go Big Tonite; NBA Kickoff!

Kobe_SportsArt

THE PERFECT SPORTS CHRISTMAS GIFT!

The perfect sports Christmas gift for every Kobe Bryant, LA Laker fanatic at the Play Strong® Store! Welcome to the ultimate one-of-a-kind, gotta-have-it-now sports gift-collectible for yourself or your favorite fellow fanatic, a hand-drawn, brush-inked and watercolored Sports Art Limited Edition illustration print. Play Strong® Sports features numbered and signed limited edition sports art prints of stars like Tom Brady, Nastia Liukin, Troy Polamalu, Lebron James, Gretchen Bleiler, Tim Lincecum, Peyton Manning, Shaun White, Tiger Woods, CC Sabathia, Kobe Bryant, Tim Tebow, Rafael Nadal, Alexander Ovechkin and many more! Get your favorite now, while its still available! Each watercolor art print was originally hand illustrated by popular sports illustrator Steve Shoff. Amaze your friends, wow your teammates, be the proud owner of the coolest sports collectible on the planet! Check out all the exciting mat, print and framing options at the Play Strong® Store! Click here for the Play Strong® Store.

SF Giants – Freakin’ Awesome World Series Victory!

TimLincecum_SportsArt

DETROIT — Three weeks ago, it seemed impossible. A week-and-a-half ago, it seemed unimaginable.

But after what the San Francisco Giants accomplished on a frigid Sunday night in October, maybe we should vow never to use those words again in sports. (Click to read the entire ESPN article by Jayson Stark at ESPN.com)

Olympics 2012: The Golden Era of LeBron James

“What a year, huh?” Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “NBA champ, MVP, gold medal. Only two other players in the history of our sport have done that, (Michael) Jordan and (Bill) Russell. For LeBron to join those two, he is worthy of joining those two.” (Read entire article at Sporting News)

Lebron James Team USA Flyin' High

Santa Sports Mojo – “All I Want For Christmas”

Check out the crazy fun Play Strong® Santa Sports Mojo line (hockey, soccer, lacrosse, football, baseball and basketball) of t-shirts, hoodies, ornaments, Christmas cards and more! The Hockey “Checking It Twice” t-shirt is all this little guy wants for Christmas!

LAX Christmas Cards: Play Strong® Sports Powercards™

Lacrosse Christmas Cards

LACROSSE “THE NUTCRACKER” CHRISTMAS CARD!

Introducing Lacrosse Santa Sports Mojo “The Nutcracker” Christmas Cards from Play Strong® Sports! (Click Here to visit the Play Strong Store) Play Strong® the leading sports greeting card brand for players, coaches and fans announced the launch of it’s Christmas sports greeting cards series “Holiday Mojo”. These fun and expressive sports themed holiday cards (seven designs) are perfect for the sports-lover and include original Soccer (“Missile-Toe”), Basketball (“The Stocking Stuffer”), Baseball (“The Snow Cone”), Hockey (“Checking It Twice”), Football (“The Holiday Rush”) and Lacrosse (“The Nucracker”) original illustrations and designs.

AVAILABLE AT THE PLAY STRONG® STORE!

Each can be previewed and purchased at the Official Play Strong® Store or at the Amazon.com Play Strong® Store. This Holiday Season, Play Strong® and unleash your inner sports mojo!

Lacrosse Christmas

[ Play Strong® Sports is the exciting sports lifestyle brand dedicated to having fun and changing the world. Our signature products are our Sports Powercards™ incredibly cool and encouraging sports greeting, note, thank you, thanks coach and birthday cards featuring over 20 sports including basketball, soccer, tennis, swimming, water polo, field hockey, football, baseball, lacrosse and hockey! Check us out at PlayStrongStore.com and on Amazon.com ]

Football Christmas Cards: Play Strong® Sports Powercards™

CRUSH THE HOLIDAY RUSH!

Introducing Football Santa Sports Mojo Christmas Cards from Play Strong® Sports! Santa Football “The Holiday Rush” Christmas Cards, check ‘em out! Play Strong® the leading sports greeting card brand for players, coaches and fans announced the launch of it’s Christmas sports greeting cards series “Holiday Mojo”. These fun and expressive sports themed holiday cards (seven designs) are perfect for the sports-lover and include original soccer (“Missile-Toe”), basketball (“The Stocking Stuffer”), baseball (“The Snow Cone”), hockey (“Checking It Twice”), football (“The Holiday Rush”) and lacrosse (“The Nucracker”) original illustrations and designs. Click Here to visit the Official Play Strong® Store or at the Amazon Play Strong® Store. This Holiday Season, Play Strong® and unleash your inner sports mojo!

Football Christmas Cards

[ Play Strong® Sports is the exciting sports lifestyle brand dedicated to having fun and changing the world. Our signature products are our Sports Powercards™ incredibly cool and encouraging sports greeting, note, thank you, thanks coach and birthday cards featuring over 20 sports including basketball, soccer, tennis, swimming, water polo, field hockey, football, baseball, lacrosse and hockey! Check us out at PlayStrongStore.com and on Amazon.com]

Sports Christmas Cards: Hockey Christmas Sports Powercards™

Awesome Hockey Christmas Cards!

Introducing Hockey Santa Sports Mojo Christmas Cards from Play Strong® Sports! Christmas Hockey “Checking It Twice” Christmas Cards, check ‘em out! Play Strong® the leading sports greeting card brand for players, coaches and fans announced the launch of it’s Christmas sports greeting cards series “Holiday Mojo”. These fun and expressive sports themed holiday cards (seven designs) are perfect for the sports-lover and include original soccer (“Missile-Toe”), basketball (“The Stocking Stuffer”), baseball (“The Snow Cone”), hockey (“Checking It Twice”), football (“The Holiday Rush”) and lacrosse (“The Nucracker”) original illustrations and designs. Click Here to visit the Official Play Strong® Store or at the Amazon Play Strong® Store. This Holiday Season, Play Strong® and unleash your inner sports mojo!

Hockey Christmas Card

[ Play Strong® Sports is the exciting sports lifestyle brand dedicated to having fun and changing the world. Our signature products are our Sports Powercards™ incredibly cool and encouraging sports greeting, note, thank you, thanks coach and birthday cards featuring over 20 sports including basketball, soccer, tennis, swimming, water polo, field hockey, football, baseball, lacrosse and hockey! Check us out at PlayStrongStore.com and on Amazon.com]

Troy Polamalu ORIGINAL For Sale on Amazon

TROY POLAMALU original brush, ink and watercolor ORIGINAL illustration for sale on Amazon (Click to go to Amazon listing) …a CRAZY-AWESOME, one-of-a-kind, GET-IT-NOW and amaze your friends gift for yourself or your favorite Steelers fanatic! GO STEELERS!

Santa Lacrosse Mojo; “The Nutcracker”

This is the latest addition to the Santa Sports Mojo series…LACROSSE; “The Nutcracker”…I’ve enclosed both the final and the sketch (thought it best to make Santa a little less mean and ruthless looking from sketch to final), see them all at Play Strong®

I’m FREAKING OUT!

Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants freak everyone out, win the World Series! (Click to read)

Tim Lincecum, aka The Freak leads SF Giants to World Series Victory

Secret Key Discovered; HAIR

Check out Shaun White, Troy Polamalu, Alexander Ovechkin, Pao Gasol, Sumo-Guy, Manny Ramirez, Old School Hoops Guy, Tim Lincecum, Rafael Nadal…notice anything? Yeah, crazy HAIR…BAM!…the secret to male  international, all-world freakish sports greatness discovered!

Who’s your favorite coach?

I’ve drawn a few coaches (see below; click to enlarge)…who’s your favorite all time coach? Let me know and I’ll see if I can draw him (or her)…

Jack Davis; The Classic Sports Illustrator

This water polo illustration is hilarious, a classic Jack Davis of Mad Magazine fame…

Water Polo; World's Toughest Sport; Jack Davis Illustration

 

 

Illustrated Adidas Ads – 2008 Olympics

These illustrations done by illustrators Luming and Lance Ma are quite amazing. They were promotional ads for the 2008 Beijing Olympics for Adidas illustrating “Impossible Is Nothing”; the togetherness of the Chinese nation and their Olypmpic athletes. Evidently the artists drew the backgrounds by hand and added the athletes in later… wow! They must have been amazing billboards…

Advertising Agency: TBWA, Shanghai, China
Creative Directors: Yang Yeo, Elvis Chau, Sarawut Hengsawad, Lesley Zhou, John Merrifield
Copywriters: Leslsy Zhou, Sarawut Hengsawad, Nicky Zhang, Michelle Wu
Photgrapher: Mark Zibert
Illustrators: Luming, Lance Ma

Magic: Kobe One Away From Best Laker Ever

“The great thing about the Lakers is that we judge by championships,” said Magic, who — along with Kareem, Kobe and crucial role player Derek Fisher — has won a handful of rings with the Lakers. “So when Kobe gets that next one, then he’ll be The Man; he’ll be the greatest Laker. And I’ll have no problem giving him that.” (Click to read entire article)

Kobe Bryant MVP of Lakers All Time?

Play Strong® Sports Christmas Card Series

Play Strong® the exciting new sports gift and greeting card brand for players, coaches and fans announced the launch of it’s special Christmas holiday sports greeting cards series “Holiday Mojo”. These fun and expressive sports themed holiday cards (six designs) are perfect for the sports-lover and include original soccer (“Missile-Toe”), basketball (“The Stocking Stuffer”), baseball (“The Snow Cone”), hockey (“Checking It Twice”) and football (“The Holiday Rush”) original illustrations and designs. Each can be previewed and purchased at the Play Strong® website store greeting card section (click to check ‘em out!). Play Strong® offers unique, high-impact and encouraging sports messages, original illustrations and designs on premium quality greeting cards, stationery, apparel, merchandise and gifts. Over twenty sports are represented (including basketball, soccer, water polo, football, baseball, volleyball, snowboarding, gymnastics, surfing, skateboarding, field hockey, ice hockey, golf, skiing, tennis, softball, swimming, lacrosse, wrestling and motocross). The Play Strong® website includes a store, blog, wholesale page and more. This season, Play Strong® and unleash your inner Santa sports mojo! 

mojomontagecvwb

Sketchbook – QB Wannabee

One from the brush-pen sketchbook…I think I always wanted to be a rock band lead singer or NFL quarterback…this sketch is me in the backyard showin’ off the skillzes…what did you wannabee?

qbsktchwdgtrockwordbubbleskllz

Shaun White Snowboarding 2008

The Mountainman of Snow-cred, Shaun White launches the new IT game, November 16th…looks very cool, check it out…

shwhite

Conquest Continues; Lakers 6-0 Dominate Dallas

Kobe, Gasol, Bynum and Co. continue the Conquest of the West 2008-09…(Sports Illustration)

kobeconquestillo

Zen Master’s Lakers Dominate Houston

Look deep into Phil Jackson’s (Vudu Guru’s, Laker Shaker’s, Zen Master’s) eyes…what do you see? DOMINATION. Read entire article (click)

phileyes

philjack3

Champions Series Illustrated Designs

Over the next week or so I’m going to be highlighting some of the sports illustrated and graphic designs I’ve been working on…here’s a few thumbnails of illustrated designs that I’m real excited about that I did recently for the Play Strong® Champions Series…a line of greeting cards, stationery and journal covers inspired by some of the great contemporary sports champions…including Tiger Woods, Jeff Saturday, Tom Brady, Gretchen Bleiler, Michael Phelps, Coach Bo Schembechler, Rafael Nadal, Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson, Kevin Garnett, Sidney Crosby and others…hope you enjoy…

championsseries

Go Planet Design Launches Play Strong®

psheader1

Go Planet Design, the sports illustration, design and promotions firm announced the launch of an inspirational new sports greeting card and gift brand, Play Strong®. In the often hyper-competetive world of youth sports, Play Strong® offers positive, high-impact and encouraging sports messages with original illustrations and designs on greeting cards, stationery, apparel, merchandise and gifts. Over twenty sports are represented (including basketball, soccer, water polo, football, baseball, volleyball, snowboarding, gymnastics, surfing, skateboarding, field hockey, ice hockey, golf, skiing, tennis, softball, swimming, lacrosse, wrestling and motocross).

Steve Shoff, president and creative director of Go Planet Design commented, “We believe that genuine encouragement and affirmation are two of the most vital and effective motivators of young athletes and their coaches. There’s something very special about gratitude and generous recognition that inspires the aspiring athlete. That’s what Play Strong® is all about.” The Play Strong® website includes a store, blog, wholesale page and more featuring fun, festive products and greeting cards for the holiday season. So this season, Play Strong® and unleash your inner champion!

Starbucks Barista Rock Stars

Every now and then I illustrate and letter some fun signs for my local Starbucks (drawing with colored liquid chalk is always interesting on the black-board)…AJ and Russ; global icons, street-cred titans, barista rock stars!

A.J. – aka “K-Fed of Kalamity”

sbxaj

Russ, aka “Iron Man”…sbxruss

This Was A Bucket List Trip!

Not only was it a total blast being at the Met’s last Saturday game at Shea Stadium (September 27th…I’m just getting to writing about it!) with my son and a couple of friends, walking the warning track for the national anthem, witnessing Johan Santana pitch a shut-out and enjoying the all-you-can-eat BBQ in the corporate tent…it was a complete sensory overload trip (as an artist) seeing over 1200 t-shirts with illustrations and designs that I created on my drawing table loving the game and cheering like maniacs…(check it out at the GK&R site)…BTW, the Pitch In For A Good Cause Foundation has sold thousands of these t-shirts and raised tens of thousands of $ for charities, very cool!

Do You Get All Crazy About Sports?

Tennis, bowling, archery, what’s your passion? See blog entry from October 22nd…here’s the fourth in a series (of four) quick, kinda goofy illos that I did for the “Uh, sports, not so much…” crowd…

What Do You Love To Do?

It’s starting to get cold out here…saw a few of these Bob-like brave souls out recently here in the Northeast, inspired this illustration…

Are You A Sports Gourmet?

See blog entry from October 22nd…now, here’s the third in a series (of four) quick, kinda goofy illos that I did for the “Uh, sports, not so much…” crowd…

Swimming Craze Part 2 Girls/Women

See October 23…ie. Dara Torres, Rebecca Soni, Natalie Coughlin, Christine Magnuson, Katie Hoff (see pic below)…seems to me since the Olympics and Michael Phelps & Co.’s phenomenal run at Mucho Gold, swimming has caught fire…in our small town 150 kids are on the competitive and developmental teams (at one pool!)…here’s a series of Team Promotional designs that I recently did for them…tomorrow, the girl’s swimming illo-designs…(Sports Illustration) Find some of these cool t-shirt designs for sale at Play Strong® (click)

 

 

 

 

 

Cool Article: Golden Goggle Awards

Are You A Sports Rock Star?

See blog entry from October 22nd…now, here’s the second in a series (of four) quick, kinda goofy illos that I did for the “Uh, sports, not so much…” crowd…

Swimming Craze

Seems to me since the Olympics and Michael Phelps & Co.’s phenomenal run at Mucho Gold, swimming has caught fire…in our small town 150 kids are on the competitive and developmental teams (at one pool!)…here’s a series of Team Promotional designs that I recently did for them…tomorrow, the girl’s swimming illo-designs…(Sports Illustration) Find some of these cool t-shirt designs for sale at Play Strong® (click)

Are You A Sports Genius?

When it comes to sports, I’m definitely not the sharpest hoe in the barn, but I’m always surprised for some reason when people that I meet have really no interest in or knowledge of sports at all (huh, maybe they have a life?)…here’s the first in a series (of four) quick, kinda goofy illos that I did for the “Uh, sports, not so much…” crowd…plus it’s always kinda fun to draw big blotchy, red-ish noses…

Snowboarding – It’s Superpipe Time Dudes

Okay, I might be alittle ahead of myself, but it’s almost that snowboarding time o’year (even tho I’ve never snowboarded, I’m stoked!)…never too early for a snowboarding illo…also, check out this interview with street-cred-megastar Shaun White, says about doing a gazillion interviews a day, “…it’s cool, but it’s also a lot of pressure, ‘cuz I don’t want to say something that makes me sound like an idiot and then have people think that all snowboarders are idiots. I don’t want to wreck what snowboarding is.” Snowboarding rocks! (Sports Illustration #49)

Mets Broadcasters Support Great Charities

Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, beloved SNY broadcasters for the MLB Mets (again on top of the NL East) pitch in for some great causes…check out the video, the cool events, the GaryKeithandRon website (and check out the cool Go Planet Design/Steve Shoff illustrated and designed logo and t-shirts!)

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