25/11/2007

Shawn Michaels, HBK wrestling sign

This sign is one of my personal favorites, the photo isn´t because it does not do the sign justice. The actual design I stole from a Wrestlemania logo and its one of the best looking signs I have ever made. I have no idea why I cant get the photo right because it does not show the Shawn Michaels part from the right angle. You will just have to take my word for it. The message on the sign is simple thou, HBKs number one. Shawn has never seen this sign, story of our lifes, but we have met him and he is a very professional and nice person. He took time for autographs, a chat and a photo even thou he was on his way to the show. It was like it was no discussion, you are fans, of course there is time for you. We like Shawn, a lot, and hope to wave this sign at a show in the near future but I guess we have to go to a show in the States then since he does not go abroad so often anymore.


Nick Patrick wrestling sign

We dont just do signs for the wrestlers, we have even done a few for the referees as well. This one we made for Nick Patrick. I can honestly say that we do not know if he is still employed with the WWE now since we have not seen him for a long time. Anyway, after Nick waved to me and my son and gave the thumbs up after we photographed him when he was alone in the ring at a show, we decided to make a sign to have at the next show we saw him. We dont think he ever saw it when we had it with us the following year but we did wave with it frantically. The design is of course stolen from the "Lords of the Ring"-trilogy and it came out pretty nice



Mr Kennedy wrestling signs

These signs were made in the beginning of time, or rather when Mr Kennedy was Mr Ken Kennedy and used a regular microphone. Nowadays he has dropped the Ken-part and an old type of microphone drops down from the ceiling so I dont know if we will ever use them. I guess I could make an extension on the Ken-part but then again we just might makle completely new ones instead, if we ever decide to flag Kennedy-signs.


We met Mr Kennedy briefly in Finland in 2005, we did have the signs with us but we never got to show them. When my son, who was 12 years at the time, asked Mr Kennedy for an autograph in the hotel-lobby, Mr Kennedy replied, -Sorry, I dont have the time, and went into the bar again and had another beer. I guess they do need the little sparetime they get. We did bump into Mr Kennedy a few times more in the hotel but we decided not to ask again since we never have had any intention of disturbing any of the wrestlers. We do understand that they live a hectic life so a plain no is OK with us. The second Mr Kennedy-sign below came out a little better than the first one, at least I think so. Once again the problemarea is the face, or rather me drawing faces. This one is OK but the face came out a bit to "smiley" and thats not really Mr Kennedys expression.




11/11/2007

Chris Masters, The Masterpiece-sign

This sign was also prepared before we wnet to Barcelona to see Smackdown. When I was planning a sig for The Masterpiece I originally wanted to try to copy the Mona Lisa and put Chris Masters face there instead of hers. Concidering how bad I am at drawing faces I eventually changed my mind and made this one instead. The fonts I copied from the movie Masters of the Universe and I just changed the text to match Chris Masters. Its not to bad and the body came out really good even thou I failed yet again with a facedrawing.

Chris Masters never showed up in Barcelona, he was serving a suspension at the WWE for drug-violations so the sign stayed in the suitcase. It will now stay in the closet since Chris Masters has been released by the WWE and since Chris Masters is a trademark name for the WWE he wont be able to use it when he hits the independent wrestlingcirkus. Thats the faith of many of my signs, as soon as I make them people get fired or even worse, die! I will have to be more careful in the future.


Finlay-wrestling sign

This one I made just before we were going to Barcelona. We had never seen Finlay live before but actually met him in Turkuu Finland when he was working as a road agent/trainer for the WWE. Since he is a fantastic wrestler and storyteller we wanted a sign that said just that. Playing with one of the greats of the WWEs name, Triple H, we changed it to Triple F and added some profanity (that always seems to work!). I used the colours from the Irish flag and there we were, Triple F, Finlay, F-ing Fantastic! We think its a good sign but due to the absolute chaos at the Barcelona-event we never got to show it properly. We will keep it till the next time instead.


Eddie Guerrero-sign

This is an altered sign. When I started out making this sign Eddie Guerrero was still alive and we were just about to go and see Smackdown in Helsinki Finland. One week prior to the event Eddie had heartfailure and died in his hotel. Needless to say we were all shocked and we were not really sure if we were going or not to the event. Eventually we made up our minds but before we left we changed the Eddie-sign a bit. Originally it read We love Eddie but we changed that to Sweden loves Eddie and also added Thank´s for the memories and the R.I.P-bit plus a black ribbon on the top right of this large sign. I dont think anyone from the WWE ever saw this sign but we were at least happy with this small celebration of a great entertainer. My son and I once met Eddie in Turku Finland and he was ever so nice to us, really taking time to speak with us and especially my son. At the show my son bought a Eddie T-shirt that he put on straight away just because of that. Back at the hotel when we were having our late dinner the wrestlers came back from the show and Eddie once again took time and came up by his free will to our table, patted on my sons chest and complimented him for his good taste. He was just ten at the time but he still remembers it like it was yesterday.



A close up on the "artwork" of Eddies face and for once I can say that I actually succeded with a portrait. That was a first, and a last!