The Monster Rocker - Jonas Gustavsson, Toronto Maple Leafs, NHL, 2011
The story
David about the design:
I have painted for the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jonas Gustavsson since he was a kid. It is an honor for me to follow a goalie through his career and evolve the mask designs from year to year.
I remember one of the first masks I painted for a young Jonas when he played in AIK in Sweden, it was a design with badass rats guarding a castle. AIK is called the rats, and they have a castle in the logo. Then later when Jonas played in Färjestad we started to do more monster styled designs, I created an octopus styled monster he used on a couple of masks during his time in Färjestad.
Then when Jonas moved to Toronto I came up with the idea how to mix a leaf with a monster cause of his nickname. Jonas liked my sketches and after that it has been many Monster leaf masks... I´m very proud to paint for Jonas and show it to the fantastic fans of the Maple Leafs.
This design idea I came up with last spring, with the monster leaf super big all over the mask, so Jonas becomes a monster leaf with this on his head...watch out! Jonas also wanted a tribute to the fantastic town of Toronto, so in the background I created the Toronto skyline with the CN Tower. I´ve been in the tower myself to do research... :)