Thursday, December 11, 2008

My Secret Golf Graphics (Shhhh!)







To see all my illustration portfolio samples, visit stevensalerno.com 

Anyone who knows me, is aware that I love to play golf. (Not today, of course: it's 37 degrees and raining!) I grew up playing golf as a kid in New England... and even won my State Golf Association Junior Amateur Championship when I was18 years old at the Equinox CC in Vermont. I then went off to design school in NYC, graduated from Parsons School of Design, and worked as an illustrator for a handful of years in NYC. Then, burnt out from everything, and the city... I ended up living in Connecticut and became an assistant golf professional at The Yale Golf Club (Yale University's golf course in New Haven, CT) and an apprentice in the PGA (Professional Golfers Association of America)... passing their required PAT (playing ability test) and going through their first stage of business school. After a few years in the golf world... I then went back to being an illustrator for my career again. The “golf years” segment of my life seems like a million years ago now... but was so much fun.

A couple of my golf buddies here in NYC are also illustrators: James Yang, and Annette Vasilakis. Annette took a photo of me swinging a club and integrated it into one of her photo/illustration assignments for a sports publication (see first photo posted at the top, which is accompanied by a photo James took of me playing the 18th hole at Bethpage Black Course). Now, I usually play golf once a week... though not nearly as well as I did when I was in younger, but I still love it. When I'm not too busy with my illustration assignment work or children's book projects, sometimes I take a little time and experiment with creating golf related images, just for myself. 

The images posted here are not ones I ever show, because they are not consistent with my “career” illustration style. They are just for my own enjoyment as an expression of my interest in the game, and it's history. The 2nd and 3rd images from the top are details from a national golf architecture design competition I entered a couple years ago. The bottom two images are: a small painting I did of Ben Hogan practicing, and a drawing of Sam Snead entitled ‘Original Smooth.”

...here is a clip of me at the practice range, hitting a 3-metal draw.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

They sure look good Steven !

www.groovesharpener.net