As a young child growing up in Dayton, Ohio, and later Centerville, Ohio, I've been a huge baseball fan. The team that I've rooted for all my life has been the Cincinnati Reds. Besides playing baseball and other sports as much as I could, I filled any spare time with my other passion – drawing. My favorite medium was always pencil and rapidiograph pen. My favorite artists were Van Gough and Patrick Nagel. I loved the vibrant colors and wonderful details in Van Gough's paintings. With Nagel, I loved the simplicity of his artwork and the wonderful contrast of colors he used.

In the late 70's I attended and graduated from Central Academy of Commercial Art in Cincinnati, Ohio. After graduation, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky where I've worked as a graphic artist with my own company. In recent years, I've married my best friend, Susan, who is also an artist and shares my love for sports – particularly baseball. Being from Syracuse, NY, she is a huge Yankees fan. Makes for some interesting afternoons in our house!

As it had been a while since I had done any illustrative work, I wanted to try my hand at digital illustration. I decided to begin with my two all-time favorite ball players – Johnny Bench and Pete Rose. I've always enjoyed working in black and white, I love the contrast. I wanted to keep my illustrations very simple with only 4-5 colors. You can see this with my early drawings of Johnny and Pete. 

With my new found interest, I continued to illustrate more players that I enjoyed and admired over the years, adding more details and developing a richer and more layered image. My aspiration is to continue to illustrate historical baseball greats – including old Negro league players – and players of the modern era. I plan to expand to my other passions - football, basketball, music, and hollywood icons. 

All illustrations are printed on a nice, thick paper stock, in two different sizes, ready for framing. A limited number of artist-signed prints are also available while they last. Eventually I would like to expand the illustrations to silk-screened prints. 

I love to get feedback. Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or questions. 

Please too, let the sports fans in your lives know about our site, and please visit our Heroes of Yesterday Facebook page. 

Check back often as I will continue to add new work. Thank you for stopping by!

Steve