Ice Dragons mask by Head Strong Grafx

[seagoal]

I'm so excited to finally create this post.  I've been waiting on this mask for a couple of months now and have been gathering pics.  I know some of you were aware that I had a mask in the works and I can now finally reveal it.  

This'll be a detailed post about the process of getting a new mask, searching for artists, choosing one, and the timing and process involved in working with him.  There'll be lots of pics so feel free to skip the words and have a gander if you like. 

So I had a Bauer NME 7 painted a few years ago in my then color scheme of Boston colors for my team at the time called the Yellow Jackets.  I found a local tattoo/airbrush artist to paint that mask for me.  Working with him was in no way a professional process.  He has average at best airbrush skills and had never painted a goalie mask before.  Working with him was fairly frustrating and the end result was pretty meh with lots of mistakes and screw up in the paint job.  At the same time though, it was awesome to have a painted mask that matched my gear and my jerseys and it was exciting nonetheless, given my restrained budget and timing needs at the time.  The real lesson of that mask was that I wanted a really nice, professional mask paintjob one day from an artist with masks in the NHL.  Lesson learned.

The paint and mask itself on that Yellow Jackets mask started chipping and the cage got bent pretty bad from a shot one day and all of that together put me in the market for a new mask.  I ended up buying an NME 8 in white with the idea that maybe I'd have it painted even though it wasn't my ideal mask.  So I began the process of researching and contacting mask artists in the US and Canada with special focus on artists with masks in the NHL.  I think I ended up contacting 7 artists all together, mostly in Canada because, well, that's where they all are.  Several of them told me they had experienced some issues with clients in the US sending masks to them to be painted and then returned.  Customs in both countries apparently does not take this transaction lightly and I heard some stories about lots of additional fees on top of the paint job cost itself.  This seemed overly complicated potentially so I tried to narrow my focus on artists in the US.  

There was one artist in particular that caught my eye: Jason Livery at Head Strong Grafx who has had a good number of masks in the NHL, AHL, Junior A, and NCAA.  At the time however, Jason was in the process of moving across the country and his timing was a bit off for new bookings because of this.  I was really interested in working with him so I decided to hold off for a while.  Not a huge deal. 

Meanwhile, my attachment to my NME 8 was weakening and I just wasn't happy with it.  I decided that I did not want to spend money painting a mask that I didn't love and wanted to upgrade to my ideal mask before booking an artist.  I did some reseach on masks and for a variety of reasons ended up purchasing a Sportmask T3.  It was originally the cages that sold me on Sportmask.  My favorite goalie nowadays is Jonathan Quick and a close favorite of mine is Tuukka Rask.  I am strongly drawn to the thick, robust center bar on cages.   It just draws my eye and I think it looks badass.  Anyway, so I bought my Sportmask and knew for sure that I wanted to have it painted, so I contacted Jason again to inquire about timing.  He responded super fast and apologized for his lack of communication during his move.  He was, now, in his new home and ready to start working again...albeit once he recovered from a minor surgery.  No big deal.  So I booked a slot with him less than 2 months out for late February/early March.  We discussed some initial details, I paid a deposit, and sent him my mask on February 20 and it was in his hands on the 22nd. 

One of the things I loved about Head Strong was the pricing transparency on his website.  I was going all out on this mask and shooting for the top tier.  I had my new color scheme already on my VE8 gear: baby blue, navy blue, and white and had a concept in mind for those colors: Ice Dragons.  The inspiration for this dates back to my childhood growing up watching Marty Turco with the Dallas Stars, who had amazing dragon masks.  Another big inspiration was Stephane Fiset's Nordiques ice block mask which I loved as a kid.  Again, with Quick as my current favorite goalie, it was all coming togetherr conceptually for me and I used all of these ideas to communicate to Jason what I wanted my mask to look like.  He was amazing to work with here.  He eventually got me in contact with a designer assistant and the process came together quite smoothly, with some tweaks here and there of course. 

Now the real waiting began, which many of us on here are familar with after ordering custom goalie gear.  I will say this as the only negative experience in this whole process...and this is not a knock on Jason for having done anything wrong at all but it just rather comes with the territory of working with an artist in his league:  getting bumped down in line when for high profile goalies and sponsors needed work done resulted in delays in my mask getting done.  To be fair, he was transparent about this ahead of time and I totally understand why this happens.  When an AHL goalie and a college goalie or a USA Hockey goalie or a sponsor needs a favor, my mask gets pushed back.  Again, I get it and this is not a knock on him, it just sorta sucks on a personal, selfish, emotional level.  It is what it is and this was the only negative thing about the whole process. So there were a few delays of this nature and a week or so of his family coming into town that caused delays, but all in all these are totally understandable and in the grand scheme of things no big deal. 

He was awesome about updates once he started and sending me teaser videos and pics and of course I would refresh his Instagram every 5 minutes once I knew he was working on my mask.  After all of this, I received my mask today April 25th just a few days off of my birthday so that was nice timing afterall.  He threw an awesome Head Strong Grafx tshirt in the box for me too as a birthday present, which was great.  My experience working with Jason, an NHL level mask artist was amazing and so enjoyable and after having held my mask in my hands all day at work it was absolutely worth the wait and delays and every dollar I spent.  

I'll lay out the photos in chronological order starting with my inspiration masks, my sketch I sent to him, the design layouts from the designer, the progress photos, and of course my photos today.  I'm not sure how many photos I can include in 1 post so I'll space them out just in case.  I want to try to not crash this post with too many photos.  

So the design elements written out were: colors baby/sky blue , navy blue, whites/grays.  Ice blocks on the chin an up the crest and on the back plate, Quick-like metal armor around all perimeters, #20 on the chin, a dragon perched atop the Seattle Space Needle on the right, a flying dragon shooting ice on the left, and the words "Stay Present, Stay Calm" and my family's initials PLJ on the back.  The lightning and snow was all his idea as was ghosting the word DRAGONS along each cheek at the bottom, which is difficult to see in full in pics but looks so good in person. 

Enjoy the pics. 

[seagoal]

[seagoal]

[seagoal]

Oh yeah, I successfully managed to get our team to rebrand starting this coming summer season...to the Ice Dragons, of course

[seagoal]

[CJ Boiss]

Lookin' sharp! When is it going to see action?

[MangoRhinehart]

Its beautiful!!

[seagoal]

3 minutes ago, CJ Boiss said:

Lookin' sharp! When is it going to see action?

Thanks!  

Thanks @MangoRhinehart

I am extremely pleased with it and super impressed.  Honestly, little things like the paint and design wrapping into the vents and interior of the face opening make me so happy

Officially our next season here starts May5 but I have pick-up every Tuesday night and possible stick-n-puck time this Sunday.  

I'm going to enjoy my next skate so much more, for sure. 

[cwarnar]

Nicely done brother... That's all sorts of wicked 

[seagoal]

1 minute ago, cwarnar said:

Nicely done brother... That's all sorts of wicked 

Cheers, thanks man.  I'm dying to tie that dangler on it after dinner tonight, ha.....with my new blue chord @stackem30 

[CJ Boiss]

6 minutes ago, seagoal said:

I am extremely pleased with it and super impressed.  Honestly, little things like the paint and design wrapping into the vents and interior of the face opening make me so happy

Officially our next season here starts May5 but I have pick-up every Tuesday night and possible stick-n-puck time this Sunday.  

I'm going to enjoy my next skate so much more, for sure. 

Are you going to buff out every puck mark? (that's what my teammates were asking me after I got my mask painted)

[MangoRhinehart]

@seagoal Half of it has the look im going for whenver my protechsport gets in. I want to do the ice dragon on one half from Game of Thrones then on the other side a regular run of the mill dragon in red.

Or im going Gandalf vs Balrog

Im a nerd.

[seagoal]

1 minute ago, CJ Boiss said:

Are you going to buff out every puck mark? (that's what my teammates were asking me after I got my mask painted)

Ha, hmm.  maybe, but I'd never tell anyone except you guys on here.

@MangoRhinehartthat sounds awesome, I fully support that idea.  If you have the long chin Protechsport you could have the tails going down towards the center of the chin...that's look great. 

[seagoal]

All dangled up with the blue chord and the car door liner on the chin

[bunnyman666]

Colour me impressed! Cool design, even better execution!

[seagoal]

12 minutes ago, bunnyman666 said:

Colour me impressed! Cool design, even better execution!

Thanks , much appreciated.

He did the perfect balance of honoring my requests and taking his own creative liberties .

[bunnyman666]

50 minutes ago, seagoal said:

Thanks , much appreciated.

He did the perfect balance of honoring my requests and taking his own creative liberties .

What you hope for when they take their liberties is that it is congruent with your vision and within the parameters of your sensibilities. That is the hardest thing when doing artistic things for other people. 

It sounds like he is pretty cool to work with despite having a few designs in the show. Sometimes when someone gets things in the big time but still takes on pee-ons like us, it is “100% my way, no highway option”; I even think some have that attitude with their pro athletes!  Doesn’t matter if they paint masks, do hair or arrange flowers. I have my painted mask and am very happy with my painter (and would use him again many times), but if a wild hair comes about and I am flush, I would give this guy a shot.  

BTW- the unis look SHARP!

[stackem30]

9 hours ago, seagoal said:

Cheers, thanks man.  I'm dying to tie that dangler on it after dinner tonight, ha.....with my new blue chord @stackem30 

Man, nice job with the cord! The whole mask turned out beautifully, you must be so pleased. 

[seagoal]

1 hour ago, stackem30 said:

Man, nice job with the cord! The whole mask turned out beautifully, you must be so pleased. 

Thanks. Indeed I am. 

The cord for sure looks less fussy than skate lace.

[coopaloop1234]

Looks great. Definitely enjoy the dragon on the Seattle Tower.

Definitely a ballsy move going custom gear/paint job without confirmation your team will be changing. But it all worked out at least.

[seagoal]

25 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Looks great. Definitely enjoy the dragon on the Seattle Tower.

Definitely a ballsy move going custom gear/paint job without confirmation your team will be changing. But it all worked out at least.

Thanks Coop.

Yeah, for sure. I made the commitment to the colors and concept on my own. My team previously used old school Predators jerseys and had a sponsorship that we were no longer affiliated with.

So when someone threw out the idea of rebranding,  I jumped on it and the boys loved it.  I felt a little vain...but it worked out, haha.  It's just more fun matching than not-matching, I think.

[coopaloop1234]

10 minutes ago, seagoal said:

Thanks Coop.

Yeah, for sure. I made the commitment to the colors and concept on my own. My team previously used old school Predators jerseys and had a sponsorship that we were no longer affiliated with.

So when someone threw out the idea of rebranding,  I jumped on it and the boys loved it.  I felt a little vain...but it worked out, haha.  It's just more fun matching than not-matching, I think.

Well a major reason a lot of us got into goaltending is because of the sweet gear. We kind of have to lead the vanity train.

[stackem30]

You might even say it's "clean" 

[coopaloop1234]

7 minutes ago, stackem30 said:

You might even say it's "clean" 

I don't think anyone would call that a "clean" design. Too busy.

But I also can't tell if you're serious or not.

[seagoal]

This mask definitely ain't "clean."