The Ernie Els project: new art "Desaru Coast"

Earlier this year I began a project for Ernie Els Design, the golf course architecture design company of 4 time Major Championship winner and World Golf Hall of Fame member, Ernie Els. It is comprised of creating my original golf art images of select "signature holes" from various golf courses around the world designed by Ernie Els... and the art images will be reproduced to advertise and promote the work of Ernie Els Design. Visit my golf art web site, SASgolf.com to see larger views of these painting for the Ernie Els project, as well as to view all my limited edition golf art prints available for purchase, including some of the original golf art items as well.

The first golfscape art image I created for this special project was of the 18th Hole (West Course) at the Wentworth Club in England. Next was art depicting the 6th Hole at The Els Club Copperleaf in South Africa. The most recent painting I completed is of the 3rd Hole (Coast Course) at The Els Club Desaru Coast in Malaysia. It is a 160 yard par three which is set against the beach line and plays into a prevailing ocean breeze. The course will be open for play in 2013.

Click here to see an earlier post on this project...

full view- painting of 3rd Hole, The Els Club Desaru Coast  -visit sasgolf.com

detail - painting of 3rd Hole, The Els Club Desaru Coast  -visit sasgolf.com

magazine ad / 3rd Hole, The Els Club Desaru Coast  -visit sasgolf.com

The top image (above) is the art image I created of the 3rd Hole (Coast Course) at The Els Club Desaru Coast course in Malaysia. The previous couple golfscapes I created for this Ernie Els project were executed with gouache, crayon, etc... on paper. For a different look, I created this Desaru Coast signature hole art image all digitally. I drew the image on a digital tablet (Wacom) using vector software (Adobe Illustrator). In the case of this art image.... all I had for reference were photos of this new course actually under construction. In other words I had to imagine the completed golf hole from looking at the architects topographical blueprints of the hole, the construction photos, and background photos of the trees and plants along this hole's location.

The middle image (above) is a close-up view of my art. The way I created the image was to hand draw hundreds of shapes to define the forms of the land contours, tree shapes, water, clouds, shadows, etc... all over lapping one another and each shape being of varying degrees of transparency. The net effect is kind of like a slightly "hard-edged" watercolor painting.... It is very crisp and graphic. The large format (17" x 22") art print of this image looks really terrific.  I have done this same technique for some my other golfscape art images, specifically for a series of art images I created of the Black Course at Bethpage.

The bottom image (above) is how my art was cropped and used in a magazine advertisement by Ernie Els Design in a prominent golf architecture publication... which is the whole point of this project.

You can see larger views of the art created for this project at sasgolf.com in the Ernie Els project gallery section.