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.

That's Mr. Hogan to you...

painting study of Ben Hogan by artist Steven Anthony Salerno  -visit SASgolf.com

limited edition print entitled "9/64" by artist Steven Anthony Salerno -visit SASgolf.com

Usually, I keep entries to my illustration blog separate from my golf art blog, (see www.sasgolf.blogspot.com -the blog for my golf art gallery site, SASgolf.com) but sometimes I do decide to enter a post pertaining to my golf art on my illustration blog anyway...as a way to inform people who only know of me by my whimsical illustrations that I also have a whole other artistic endeavor with my golf art images.


Posted here is my painting study (gouache, watercolor and pencil on paper) of past PGA Tour iconic superstar, Ben Hogan, one of my favorite players and subjects. This painting was then merged with one of my photos of wood textures to create a final art image for my edition of prints entitled "9/64" -which refers to Mr. Hogan having won 9 major championships and 64 PGA Tour victories in his career, and is available on my site SASgolf.com in the "exclusive edition" category.

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