BLACK is back! (US Open returns to Bethpage)

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BLACK is back! On June 18th, the US Open Championship is back at the Black Course at Bethpage... (in Farmingdale, New York on Long Island) The best professional golfers are back to challenge one of the toughest golf courses on the planet! (The US Open was played there back in 2002, won by Tiger Woods, who was the only player to finish under par. And this year's course is playing to an even longer yardage!)

I love the game of golf. And when I am not busy with my regular illustration career schedule, I find the time to also create golf related images for myself...

Seen above (top image) is a poster I designed, using a full-color digital painting I created of the Bethpage Black Course's 14th hole, a short par 3, seen on a late summer afternoon when the shadows were getting long. (and below it is a detail view of the painting)

For reference I used a photo I'd taken on a day I played the Bethpage Black Course last year. (I had managed to snag a tee time ONCE on the Black Course last summer... Yes, it's a public course! It's nearly impossible to get a tee time on the Black Course, so usually I end up playing the Red Course or the Blue Course.)

Then I simply painted my image in Adobe Photoshop, on multiple layers, using my custom color palette of cmyk colors, just a few different paintbrush tools and erase tools and working with my digital "pen" on a 12" x 12" Wacom tablet. It's a terrific way to "paint" because I can try multiple color and texture variations so quickly. And when I make a mark or stroke, and don't quite get it just the way I intended it on the first try, I can simply delete the mark or stroke and try executing it again...

The poster shown next (entitled "The Black Course") is another I designed using a very graphic drawing I had created in strong blues and blacks only, of the Black Course's par three 17th hole. It was drawn in Adobe Illustrator directly on my digital Wacom tablet using just a few different "brush" tools and color fills... It's difficult to see in these small screen samples, but the trees in the background are very boldly done in a calligraphic manner. One must see the full 24" x 36" sized poster to appreciate the simple and bold nature of the image.

Click here to see an earlier posting on several other US Open posters I created for the upcoming event next month at Bethpage... as a self-motivated project.