latest golf drawing by Steven Anthony Salerno

drawing by Steven Anthony Salerno      visit sasgolf.com

Posted here is a recent drawing I created... a very stark image of a player about to strike the ball, seen from a face-on view. 

It's a pen & ink drawing on paper, but I purposely drew it in a manner suggestive of a dark, rich etching. As I drew the ink line with a pen, I immediately rubbed the ink line with my wetted finger, thus smudging the line and getting a heavy black line that "bleeds" -suggestive of a particular etching style wherein the burr of the stylus cutting into the metal plate holds a lot of ink, thus when the plate is printed it yields a rich, black, fuzzy line on the printing paper. (note: When creating an etching, lines are drawn and bitten into a metal plate via an acid bath, then ink is rubbed into these lines, followed by pressing damp paper on top of the plate. The artist will sometimes purposely flood the etching plate with excessive ink too... to obtain a very saturated line that bleeds onto the damp printing paper.) My drawing simulates this look, even though it isn't an etching.

Once I completed the drawing stage, I then scanned it into Photoshop, onto a layer. Then I also scanned into Photoshop an earlier painted background I had created with gouache. This became an abstract layer under my figure of the golfer. I then duplicated this same layer and placed it as a third layer above the figure of the golfer... but immediately erased most of it out, leaving just a couple thin angled streaks, which seem to be in the foreground in front of the golfer. The last step is to merge all these layers, resulting in the final art image which you see here. The background creates a stark atmospheric backdrop for the golfer... as if he is playing alone on a desolate course somewhere in the world.

To see all my available limited edition golf art prints, visit sasgolf.com, my on-line gallery.

Portrait of Ernie Els

portrait of Ernie Els by Steven Anthony Salerno visit sasgolf.com

I recently completed a small portrait of World Golf Hall of Fame golfer, South African Ernie Els... shown hoisting the Claret Jug upon winning the 2012 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, his fourth major championship victory. Now being the holder of four majors places Mr. Els into pretty rare company, as only 27 players in the entire history of the game have ever won four or more major championships. (and we all know that Jack Nicklaus hold the record with 18 majors and Tiger Woods is in a not so distant second with 14 majors)

I created this portrait painting using pencil, crayon, acrylics and gouache on Arches 260 lb hot press paper. In 2012 I had completed a series of "signature hole" golfscape paintings for Ernie Els Design (his golf course architecture company) which you can view at sasgolf.com in the Ernie Els project section.

I usually prefer doing "swing portraits" of players, rather than straight forward "portraits" simply because I enjoy expressing my knowledge of the golf swing and also capturing the unique look of an individual's swing... but in this instance, I actually could not locate sufficient reference photos to my liking of Mr. Els in action during the final round of the 2012 Open Championship... but the multitude of photos of him after winning and hoisting the Claret Jug caught my eye, as they radiated his sheer joy in winning his 4th major championship. So I used about 5 different photos as reference to construct my own art image... simplifying and editing out folds and wrinkles in clothing, adding or eliminating shadows, repositioning his pose, etc... all the multitude of actions required when using static photo reference to create an organic drawing and painting artwork. 

Visit sasgolf.com to view all my available limited edition golf art prints.

Rory is #1 (but for how much longer?)

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland placed third in the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie, by way of a terrific final round bogey-free 68 (at the tender age of just 18 years old) and ever since then he has rocketed to the very top in the golfing world. He now sits atop the World Golf Rankings, and at the ripe old age of 23 has two Major Championship victories under his belt.

In 2013 will Rory hang onto that #1 spot and also win another Major? Or, will the man in the #2 rankings position overtake him? (Who just happens to be one Tiger Woods.) My feeling is that Tiger will win his 15th Major Championship this year, and in so doing will gain back the #1 World Golf Ranking once again.

(Rory will certainly be the world's #1 golfer many more times in the future, but Tiger still has quite a bit of bite left in his own game, enough to regain the #1 title and to also possibly match or surpass the Majors record held by Mr. Nicklaus!)

There is only so much time in a day, and with all the work I do in my illustration career, I then have to also make the time to do the additional golf art projects that come my way (see the Ernie Els project), and also for the number of personal golf art images I create to offer as limited edition prints on my gallery site sasgolf.com. So, I have been meaning to create an art image of Rory McIlroy for quite a while but just cannot find the proper time. And I still haven't..... but recently I did manage to do a simple conventional "study" painting of Rory, posed at the end of his powerful follow through. The impeccable balance maintained throughout his swing is amazing considering the swing speed he generates. This painting was created uses crayon, acrylics, and gouache on Arches 260 lb hot press paper. (paper size: approximately 22" x 16") This painting is not available as a limited edition print, but the original painting is available for purchase on sasgolf.com in the purchase original art section.

"RORY" painting by Steven Anthony Salerno  visit sasgolf.com

To see my golf art images available as limited edition prints, as well as some original artworks available for purchase too, visit sasgolf.com

Wingtips & Practice, Practice, Practice

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE by Steven Anthony Salerno -available at SASgolf.com

WINGTIPS by Steven Anthony Salerno -available at SASgolf.com

This week I offered two more limited edition prints on my golf gallery site, SASgolf.com -both being fun, pop graphic images. The first print, entitled WINGTIPS is a boldly drawn close-up view of a player wearing bright blue wingtip golf shoes stroking a putt, that hopefully ends with the ball successfully in the bottom of the cup! The second print, entitled PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE is a simple graphic depiction of some golfers all in a row at the driving range, in various stages of their swings beating balls... with the definition of the word practice embedded within the art image.


These two prints can be seen in the golf graphix gallery section of SASgolf.com and are both available in two different print sizes, 11x17 and 13x19.

When Woods Were Really Wood

"The Match" is available as a limited edition print at sasgolf.com

"The Match" is available as a limited edition print at sasgolf.com

Recently I was using a chunky oil crayon doodling on some discarded printing paper, and quickly drew a golfer with a straw hat swinging a club, poised at his finish. Just a simple line drawing -a glorified doodle really, culled from my memory of golf swings and combined with my ability to draw the human figure without needing a model or a photo or even a preliminary sketch. It had the retro look of a player from the 1940's (using a persimmon wood, of course!) I really liked the rough line quality of the thick crayon because it disallowed me from fussing with any detail, which forces the essential gesture to describe the form. 

So, then I did another quick crayon drawing of a caddie, complete with knickers and holding a canvas golf bag, followed by another player (leaning on his club and puffing on a cigarette), and second young caddie. These drawings were done on separate scraps of paper, so I scanned them all into Photoshop and arranged them all together into a scene such that it looked like one player and the two caddies were watching the other player play his shot. Then I took a previous rectangular color field I had painted on paper with green gouache, executed with rough, loose, brushstrokes and scanned that into Photoshop, too. I placed the green color field painting behind the layer with the line drawings of the players and caddies, then further modified it by bringing in additional shapes I created to make the bunkers and the smaller pine trees in the distance, including the flagstick. Using a digital "fuzzy" paintbrush tool, I painted the skin tone and clothing color of the characters on another Photoshop layer between the existing layers. Of course, there is a lot of subtle adjustments of the colors, and even alterations of the drawings, too. 

I did a test print of the image on watercolor paper and felt it was very nice, but too barren feeling. It needed more context. Next, I went back to the chunky oil crayon and drew two big, simple, pines trees, effectively to frame the characters. The story I was telling myself at that point was that these two players were vying for the 1948 club championship, in the final match. At that point I knew I had to add in some interested club members following the action! I scanned the drawings of the two big pine trees as well as my additional drawings of spectator characters and brought them into the final scene. Wanting to keep the image as simple as possible, I colored the big trees and the spectators all the same color blue, as if in a cool blue shadow, thus allowing the brighter players dressed in white to visually dominate the scene.

Posted here is the full view of the final image... and a detail of one of the players so you can see the rough line quality of the oil crayon which was used to create the figures. Some images/paintings I create take weeks to finalize... in this case, because it was based on using quick "sketches" as the final imagery, and the fact that I fabricated the image in an impromptu manner on the fly, making it up as I went along, it took very little time at all. It is fun to create this kind of "spontaneous" image on the heels of having spent tons of time on a more elaborate, formal images. It helps to regain some balance.

This print is available in a limited edition in the "match play" gallery on sasgolf.com

Steven Anthony Salerno opens his web golf art gallery

I've been a professional illustrator all my adult life... and have played golf since I was a young boy. I played well enough as a teenager to win the Vermont State Junior Amateur Championship, and as a young man worked in the golf business for several years, first as an Assistant Professional at the Yale University Golf Club, then at Racebrook Country Club, both in Connecticut. During that time I was also a registered apprentice in the PGA, passing their playing ability test (PAT) and also completing the first stage of their business school.

In my illustration career I create images for clients in magazines, advertising, children's picture books, product packaging, etc... However the golf drawings, paintings and graphics I also created over the years were made just for myself, never as an assignment for a commercial client. Very few people knew I even created golf related images.

In 2009 the US Open conducted by the USGA was to be played at the Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, Long Island, just a short distance outside of Manhattan (NYC) where I live. The Black Course is a course I've played before, so I decided to create a pretend design of a US Open/Black Course poster just for the fun of it. I created one, then another and another... having such a fun time that in the end I created seven different "mock" poster designs showcasing the Black Course as the 2009 US Open Championship venue. I presented a few of them in February 2009 to the Marketing Director at the USGA, Mary Lopuszynski, but they had already selected an official poster/print for the 2009 US Open event and in fact had already passed the date for finalizing all their merchandise selections.

These test Bethpage Black Course images I created made me decide that I'd pursue another new direction with my artistic talents by joining my life long interest in the game of golf with my artistic talents. Since I continue to work in the illustration field using my name Steven Salerno, I therefore decided that I'd promote my golf art images using my full name Steven Anthony Salerno, just to create a bit of an identity separation between my continuing career in illustration and my budding golf art career. The name of my golf art web site is SASgolf.com -which are my initials, S.A.S.

So, next I tentatively posted these 2009 Bethpage Black Course golf art images onto my illustration blog site, while I figured out how I was going to promote my golf art. In June of 2009 from out of the blue I received a call from Mike McAllister, golf writer and the Managing Editor of the PGA TOUR official web site. He explained that he'd seen my golf art images, and asked if I'd like to create art images of the tour's top players every week in their Player Spotlight feature on pgatour.com. Of course I did! So throughout the rest of 2009, every week, I created portraits of many of the tour stars, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, Steve Stricker, Camilo Villegas, and others...

This project connection with the PGA TOUR further propelled me to want to make the leap into going beyond my career in illustration and also becoming the best golf artist I can be... so, I created and launched sasgolf.com to display and sell limited edition golf art prints reproduced from my golf art drawings, paintings and graphics.

Visit sasgolf.com to view all the various "galleries" of my prints available to you, for display in your home or office. If you love the game, you'll certainly find a print you'd enjoy owning. These striking prints are printed on 100% cotton rag-based archival fine art papers using vivid permanent pigment inks. The superb inkjet printing process, called Giclee, is the same ultra-fine printing process now used by many museums to produce highly accurate reproduction prints of drawings and paintings in their collection.

Posted above are a couple of my "test" Bethpage Black Course poster designs I initially created.