Tiger By The Numbers

art by Steven Anthony Salerno  visit sasgolf.com

(author's note: since the original posting date on 3/27/13, Tiger won again on the PGA Tour, upping his tournament victory stat from 77 to 78.... so the art image will have to be modified yet again to indicate 01-14-78)

This weeks victory at the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational Tournament by Tiger Woods marks the player's astounding 77th PGA Tour win, his recapturing of the World Golf Ranking's number 1 position... and has elicited renewed buzz that he may very well be firmly back on track to win more major championships again (he currently has 14 titles) and may either tie or surpass Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championship victories.

Posted here is a painting I did a few years ago for the PGA Tour web site's "Player Spotlight" feature section... and at the time the numbers graphic within the art image (I think) was set at  1 -  14  -  71.  So, now I modified the numbers graphics within the art image to be:  1  -  14  -  77.

Of course, the 1 in the artwork is Tiger's world golf ranking, the 14 is how many major titles he owns, and the 77 is how many PGA Tour wins he has. Relative to his golf skills, the man in red has talent, experience far beyond but a few other players in history, a strong work ethic, and clear goals. I personally think Tiger will indeed either tie or surpass Nicklaus' record. And in so doing I think he will win a major at 50 years of age! 

When Tiger's life became a tabloid feast a handful of years ago, and his personal and public world was crumbling... it seemed his golden train in golf had been permanently derailed. No one can avoid catastrophic periods in their life, whether they come from illness, outside forces, or are even self created.... but sometimes one can truly heal, can learn, can become stronger than before. Second chances are available but must be earned. Maybe Tiger indeed is becoming better both on and off the course. And his new prowess on the course suddenly has everyone thinking his golden train is on a very fast track once again.

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

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays and best wishes in the new year! Best wishes  to everyone for 2013!

The highlight of my golf season this year (as usual) was playing in a weekend best-ball tournament with my 82 year old father as my partner, and watching him chip in for a birdie on the 18th hole par 4 hole, giving us a score of 69 (best-ball) for that day.

The highlight of my art career for 2012? A couple projects come to mind: I completed a handful of golf art images for Ernie Els' golf course design company, Els Design. I created golfscape paintings of several signature golf holes around the world that Ernie Els designed, and these art images were then used in magazine ads representing Els Design. Visit sasgolf.com to see these signature hole art images created for Ernie Els.

Also, earlier in 2012 my most recent illustrated children's picture book, Brothers At Bat (written by Audrey Vernick, and is the true story about 12 brothers who made baseball history), was released by Clarion Books, and in December the picture book was included in the New York Times Book Review list of Notable Picture Books for 2012... quite an accomplishment considering there were only 8 books on the list! Visit stevensalerno.com to view samples from Brothers At Bat by clicking on the "featured book" section.

-Steven Anthony Salerno

work in progress: Majors Chart

Currently I am in the middle of working on a rather ambitious new golf art image... one that I had been wanting to create for some time now, and am just now getting to it. 

There are 27 golfers in history who have won four or more of golf's major championship tournament victories. We all know that Jack Nicklaus is at the top of the chart with an astounding 18 major championship wins, followed by Tiger Woods with 14 major championship wins. When Tiger had reached his 14th major victory a handful of years ago, everyone in the golf world assumed it would not be much longer before he cruised past Jack's record. But in lieu of Tiger's fall from grace, drop in world golf ranking's and the rebuilding of his golf swing over the past few years (which has brought him back up into the top 3 in the rankings), Tiger's status regarding whether or not he can match or surpass Jack's landmark of 18 major victories has been fractured. Will he win more majors? It remains to be seen... Certainly he will win more majors, but can he win 4 more? 5 more?

drawing of Harry Vardon by Steven Anthony Salerno

The artwork I am creating is a swing portrait of each of these 27 players, consisting of a small black crayon drawing embellished with a simple tonal wash of neutral color, all of which will then be designed into a kind of descending order performance chart within one of my limited edition art prints. I just think it will be interesting to see at a glance all the players within one visual which puts their major tournament accomplishments into perspective. 

drawing of Ben Hogan by Steven Anthony Salerno

Of the 27 players on the list, only 3 are still active and can potentially add more major victories to their record: Tiger Woods (14), Phil Mickelson (4) and Ernie Els (4). And, as you all know, a few years ago Tom Watson almost won the Open Championship yet again, which would have elevated his record of 8 major victories up to 9 (tying Ben Hogan and Gary Player) but a bogey on the 72nd hole put an end to the incredible feat. Maybe Tom has one more charge in him during an upcoming major.

Posted here are just a few of the drawings: 
Harry Vardon
Ben Hogan
Byron Nelson

drawing of Byron Nelson by Steven Anthony Salerno

Here is the full list of all the player which will appear in my final "Major Chart" art image once it is completed:

Jack Nicklaus (18)
Tiger Woods (14)
Walter Hagen (11)
Ben Hogan (9)
Gary Player (9)
Tom Watson (8)
Harry Vardon (7)
Bobby Jones (7)
Arnold Palmer (7)
Gene Sarazen (7)
Sam Snead (7)
Nick Faldo (6)
Lee Trevino (6)
J.H.Taylor (5)
James Braid (5)
Seve Ballesteros (5)
Byron Nelson (5)
Peter Thompson (5)
Willie Anderson (4)
Jim Barnes (4)
Raymond Floyd (4)
Bobby Locke (4)
Tom Morris Sr. (4)
Tom Morris Jr. (4)
Willie Park Sr. (4)
Phil Mickelson (4)
Ernie Els (4)

These simple drawings I am doing are fun.... I spent many hours locating all the 27 reference photos I needed, and in some instances I found a photo I wanted which depicted a player in the exact swing pose I wanted, but I had to then find another photo of the player which had a better view of his face and then in my drawing combined the visual reference from the two different photos. Of the very early players on the list, like Tom Morris Sr and Jr, or Willie Anderson, or J.H. Taylor, or Willie Park Sr. it was impossible to locate any decent reference photos, so I was stuck with whatever photo I could find.

Once I have completed the final art for "Majors Chart" and the limited edition art print is available, I will post a notice here on my blog....

To view all my limited edition golf art prints available, visit sasgolf.com

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.

New "signature hole" art for The Els Club Copperleaf, South Africa

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.

First in this series of commissioned signature hole golf art, I created a painting and a drawing of the 18th hole (West Course) at the Wentworth Club outside of London, England which was redesigned by Ernie Els Design in 2008 -2011. See a previous post on this segment of the project to view all these Wentworth Club art images. Below is my painting of the 18th hole at the Wentworth Club, outside of London, England.

my painting of 18th hole (West Course) at the Wentworth Club  visit SASgolf.com

14th hole at The Els Club Copperleaf  -visit SASgolf.com

(detail) 14th hole at The Els Club Copperleaf  -visit SASgolf.com

And recently I completed two paintings for the project's next segment: The Els Club Copperleaf in South Africa. This Els Club course was designed in 2007... and is near Johannesburg, developed on land once lived on by Ernie Els' grandfather. I created a light, impressionistic gouache and oil crayon painting of the par three 14th hole (see above), which depicts a view from the tee box looking toward the narrow green, and the art features the beautiful plains and mountain vista beyond. The colors and tones in this painting capture the heat of the day and brightness of the day.

6th hole at The Els Club Copperleaf  -visit SASgolf.com

(detail) 6th hole at The Els Club Copperleaf  -visit SASgolf.com

The next painting, of the par four 6th hole (see above), was also created in gouache and oil crayon, and is purposely boldly executed to reflect the beautiful, raw nature of the region surrounding this new golf course. The art is a view seen from the vantage point of the tee shot landing area, showing the angle of the approach shot into the green which is protected by water and bunkers.

magazine advertisement for The Els Club Copperleaf  -visit SASgolf.com

Posted above is the The Els Club Copperleaf art as it was designed for the Els Design advertisement page in a golf architecture publication. The acting creative director for this particular "Copperleaf" segment of the project was handled by Thomas Rubi, the Vice President of Strategic Development for Ernie Els. 

I really look forward to the next "signature hole" golf art I will create for Ernie Els Design... which I believe will be for their new golf course at the Desaru Coast golf complex in Malaysia.

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