After three weeks absence, I’ve returned with a new watercolour of Sydney Crosby’s Golden Celebration from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. I spent most of my time through the last month painting a large, complex version of the scene of him and his team mates coming in for a celebration… but, in the end I ruined it when I tried to paint the crowd into the background. It just looked cartoony and poor quality. It was a real heartbreak moment for me, as I had spent so long on the painting – it’s really hard to give up on one. It’s a real mind trip. Either way, I decided to repaint an isolated part of that original painting … Crosby … and retire from painting backgrounds. It looks better this way too!

A watercolour painting of Sydney Crosby celebrating after the over-time goal to defeat the USA in overtime at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

When I was painting the original image I collected just about ‘every’ available photo and video image of the event and tried to create an alternate image that people didn’t have. While there are angles of Crosby from this direction, I’ve tries to put him inbetween motions (both gloves flying off, you can see more of his face before it gets lost in his jersey, movement in his legs and other instances). In the original painting I had to imagine the positions of every other player on the ice based on video footage.

Here is an example of what the original painting was going to look like. A lot of aspects look alright, but I just lost it in the end with the crowd. PS, there was still a lot to finish ‘all around’ the image – and not just the crowd or ice surface.