Art of the Matter: Panini America Releasing New Sketch Cards at 2012 Toronto Fall Expo

You can learn a lot about a professional athlete by giving him nothing more than a few colored Sharpies, a blank trading-card canvas, about five minutes and one simple request: Draw something. What you're likely to find -- as we have at Panini America during the last few years -- is that the resulting artwork is sometimes primitive, sometimes surprisingly good, often personality-revealing, never boring . . . and always unique.

You know, you can learn a lot about a professional athlete by giving him nothing more than a few colored Sharpies, a blank trading-card canvas, about five minutes and one simple two-word request: Draw something.

What you’re likely to discover — as we have at Panini America during the last few years — is that the resulting artwork is sometimes primitive, sometimes surprisingly good, never boring and always unique; as one-of-a-kind as the player who drew it.

Indeed, there’s just something about what players choose to draw — often paying homage to their hobbies, their hopes, their hometowns or their heroes like only they can — that draws you in. Certainly it’s what compels us here at Panini America to ask each new class of rookies we meet for their best sketches. It’s what in turn transforms those hand-crafted creations into some of the most unique trading cards on the market.

Of course, we say all of that to say this: Next week at the 2012 Toronto Fall Expo, Panini America will begin unveiling its newest wave of original player sketch cards, most of which were acquired in August during the 2012 NHLPA Rookie Showcase and the 2012 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot.

A small handful of these original sketch cards will be available to collectors for the first time starting next Friday during Panini America’s 2012 Toronto Fall Expo wrapper-redemption program.

Just some of what you can glean from perusing the new works of art below:

• The New York Rangers’ Chris Kreider might just have a post-hockey career as an illustrator
• The Cleveland Cavaliers’ Tristan Thompson is a proud Canadian
• The Toronto Raptors have a bright, colorful future on their hands
• The St. Louis Blues’ Jake Allen plays some really long golf courses
• The Nashville Predators’ Ryan Ellis is a Spitfire through and through

Enjoy . . .