Ryan's Hockey Jersey

 It's no secret that I took the design of the hockey jersey that Ryan Burke from OilCan Drive wears from the old Colorado Avalanche hockey jerseys that the team wore in 2001, the year I first came up with OilCan Drive.

Over the years Ryan has worn that jersey proudly, even when the actual Avalanche team wasn't doing so well. In 2007 Reebok took over the manufacturing of all NHL jerseys and some teams, the Avalanche included, changed the design of their uniforms.

I asked a friend if I should change Ryan's jersey as well to keep with the times and his response was, "keep him in the same jersey when the Avs won the Stanley Cup. It ain't gonna get better than that." So, I kept Ryan in the same jersey I had designed for him back in 2001. But, recently, I've come to like a lot of aspects of the newer jerseys and when I see the older jerseys at a game or on TV they just look dated.

So, it may be time to give Ryan an upgrade.

This last week I downloaded a blank hockey jersey template and played around a bit. While there are a lot of elements I like in the new jerseys there are also a few I don't like. So, instead of copying the new jersey I thought I'd take the elements I liked and leave off the ones I didn't.

One of the parts of the jersey that every fan seems to hate are the two double striped lines coming off of the neck down to the arm pits. This design alone has led a lot of fans to deem these jerseys "the uni-pron" since the lines makes it look like every player is wearing an apron with apron strings. So, I left those off.

But, I like the idea of a thick black line between the white and burgundy of the jersey and I really like the coloring on the sides underneath the arm pits. I kept the logo I designed for Ryan, an "A" I created so I wouldn't run into any legal issues by using the Avalanche's actual logo and I kept the big foot shoulder patches I designed as well.

And, because I was having so much fun with it, I designed a "home" jersey in the burgundy and blue colors. I'm not sure I'd ever put Ryan in this but you never know.

The question is, should I keep the old jersey Ryan currently sports in the OilCan Drive comic or move him into the present with the newer design? I am currently drawing a sequence where I could rip up and ruin his old jersey, forcing him to don the new one, or I could save the old one and keep it intact.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet but it was definitely fun to take a break from the regular illustration work and design a new jersey.

We'll see what Ryan's fashion future is soon enough!

Have a great one and I'll see you all soon.