golfing legend Ben Hogan in 1953 at Carnoustie

drawing by Steven Salerno of Ben Hogan winning the '53 Open Championship  visit stevensalerno.com

above

Aside from my illustration work for magazines, advertising and picture books for kids, -because of my personal interest in the great game of golf, additionally I also create golf related art and graphics. ...Above is my recent drawing I created of one of my golf legends heroes, Ben Hogan, the American superstar from the 1940's and 1950's. It depicts Hogan in 1953 playing at the Open Championship (that's the "British Open" for you non-golfers) at the Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland...  Of course, I referred to a specific b&w photo from the actual event. I created this original drawing in Adobe Illustrator, then brought it into Photoshop where I scanned in my painted gouache textures to create the background sky, clouds, and ground, plus painted the watercolor-looking color and texture digitally. Posted here is the full image and a few close-up views...

1953 was a big year for Hogan. In April he won the Masters, in June he won the US Open Championship (his 8th & 9th major championship victories), and in July he played in the Open Championship, held that year at Carnoustie. (It was his one and only time competing in an Open Championship) Hogan was tied for the lead after the third round, then shot a course record in the 4th round to win the championship. (His 10th major championship victory in his career and his last.)

drawing by Steven Salerno of Ben Hogan winning the '53 Open Championship (detail) 

drawing by Steven Salerno of Ben Hogan winning the '53 Open Championship (detail)

drawing by Steven Salerno of Ben Hogan winning the '53 Open Championship (detail)

visit my illustration website to view my portfolios for editorial, advertising, picture books, etc... as well as client list, list of published picture books and more...

stevensalerno.com

ARNIE

ARNIE by golf artist Steven Anthony Salerno   visit sasgolf.com

Aside from my long career creating illustrations in my known style for magazines, advertising, children's picture books, packaging, etc... I also spend a lot of my time creating golf art -an expression of my life long interest in the great game of golf. Posted here is one of my most recent drawings... yet another image of one of my favorite players of all time, Arnold Palmer.

Visit my golf art gallery site, sasgolf.com to read about my relatively new venture into golf art, and see many more samples of my limited edition golf art prints available for purchase.

I created this image entitled ARNIE, first by drawing the figure of Palmer using just a somewhat blunt black oil crayon... just a straight forward traditional rendering... then I scanned my drawing into Photoshop where I digitally manipulated the black color of the crayon line so that it was now a saturated blue. Then I added a hyper-flesh tone to his face, hands and arms with a digital brush. The last steps were to embed the drawing onto the background, which is comprised of distressed paint on a wood panel, including the stenciled lettering of the name PALMER. The resulting "look" is of a traditionally conceived drawing, but the manipulations and layering in Photoshop gives it a modern pop feel overall, representing that Mr. Palmer is a link between older traditions and values with the contemporary game of today. 

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

Visit stevensalerno.com to view my illustration portfolio samples.

New on-line golf art gallery at sasgolf.com... (my new [other] site!)

Anyone who knows me, knows I have been involved with and keenly interested in the great game of golf nearly all my life...

 Just recently I (finally) launched a new web site named sasgolf.com (based on the initials of my full name, Steven Anthony Salerno) It is a showcase for my personal golf related art images and graphics... available on this new site as limited edition giclee prints. (on the site you can also read a brief bio/info of my involvement with golf and how my golf art has been used by the PGA Tour.) 

During my rather lengthy professional illustration career I've developed a recognizable whimsical style, which has appeared in literally thousands of illustrations for advertising, magazines, product packaging and children's books.... but my golf art images on my new golf art site are a complete departure from my regular illustration career style. These golf images are more painterly and/or "reality" based in concept and execution... Posted above are a handful of my original golf images and graphics.

I love creating illustrations, but as anyone in the biz knows, many times there are compromises to be made (some big, some small) due to client needs and especially due to time & budget constraints. And many times you are having to align your illustration style with topics that do not necessarily line up with your style nor your own personal interests. Of course as a professional, the trick is to create a wonderful illustration despite any of these various obstacles... and for the most part I feel I have done it well. But after nearly thirty years of tight illustration deadlines and commercial demands, it is refreshing when doing these golf art images to not have client factors in the mix ... and to take as much time as I want. Compared to the all-too-often feeling of being pressed for time to complete my illustration projects, in contrast, when creating these golf art images I can relax and feel more in sync with what I am creating. 

My motivation is to create the best golf images I can -to express in the images the thoughts and feelings I have about the game and its top players who become incons. I'm selling these images as fine reproductions prints... so, of course it will be terrific if the prints sell well, but ultimately my goal, as an artist, is to leave some lasting images on the subject. Hopefully the golfing world will enjoy them.

Visit my new site at sasgolf.com