Michael Jordan

A portrait of the GOAT Michael Jordan by Erik Pingol

An art professor once told me that a portrait is not just some photograph or illustration of someone’s face. It should have the story or the character or memory that describes who the subject is. This, for me, is Michael Jordan. The hard teammate. The ultra-competitive. The proud monarch. The undefeated champion.

Truth be told, I was never a fan of MJ. I never collected his cards when I was young. I didn’t really root that much for his games, in fact I wanted my Lakers to defeat him. But my beloved ’90s era was the decade of his greatness, and it was harder not to be in awe of this certain genius.

This is the last Bulls portrait in my planned collection, and definitely one of my favorites.

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Scottie Pippen

Scottie Pippen illustrated by Erik Pingol

“Considered one of the greatest small forwards of all time, Pippen was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team eight consecutive times and the All-NBA First Team three times. He was a seven-time NBA All-Star and was the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1994. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History during the 1996–97 season, and is one of four players to have his jersey retired by the Chicago Bulls” from Wiki.

Yup I got lazy there trying to write something about Scottie. Well, this site is about my artworks, not athlete profiles after all. I do like Scottie Pippen in the Bulls’ run during the ’90s but I just didn’t have the words to say.

Anyway, as a journal entry, I remember waking up early in the morning and sketching this. In a few hours I finished it and got to finish more on the same day. I’m getting the hang of hatching. I think I finished 5 player portraits in one day.

Next: MJ

Harper 9

Ron Harper was one of the herd that I liked—back in the 2nd Bulls’ era in the ’90s. Together of course with MJ, Pip, and Kukoc and Rodman—Harper was a very dependable role-player. But of course I was just too young to remember his details and I didn’t collect his Fleer and Topps back then. So I took a piece of Wikipedia about him:

“Harper signed a free agent deal with the Chicago Bulls, who were reloading following the first retirement of Michael Jordan. Harper found his niche with the Bulls upon Jordan’s return, eventually becoming a fan favorite by reinventing himself as a big perimeter defender, ball handler, and mid-range scorer.”

Yes. True that. And when the Bulls were over, He got to join the Lakers—my true team—and won 2 more rings. Lucky and great guy!

Ron Harper. I did this portrait because very few did. Don’t forget this guy! He’s great!

Right now, I’m just working with portraits and portraits and more portraits, but in the future I’ll do some court action for each of these guys (that I portrait). Be sure to here for it, guys!

Please follow my Instagram and Twitter which is @erikpingol both of them. And my Facebook pages Art of Erik Pingol and Sports Illustrator. There are widgets below. Thanks, as always.

The Spider of Split

Toni Kukoc was known as the Spider of Split—that is Split—in Croatia. He had been one if not the most celebrated Croatian player of his time. He was a favorite Bull of mine back in their Championship years in the ’90s, that’s why I was fairly disappointed that The Last Dance (Netflix documentary) paid very less attention in him than he deserved.

A complete player: perimeter shots, 3-pointers, defense, passing skills and a very quick tall guy with a lot of tricks.

Toni Kukoc —one of the 2nd 3-peat Bull’s main guns

At this point I was getting pretty used to my hatching. Expect more coming!

The Worm

Dennis Rodman of the ’90s Chicago Bulls by Erik Pingol

Dennis Rodman was a wonder under the rim. He wasn’t known for scoring but what he’s known for was worth more—his defense and rebounds. Let MJ and Pip win the scoring battle, but trust The Worm to take care of the missed shots.

Here’s the ’90s Bulls’ Dennis ‘The Worm’ Rodman in black and white, my first entry in my NBA Portraits: The ’90s.

Mobile Wallpaper: Sakuragi X Chicago Bulls

The NBA X SLAM DUNK posts I had for my Facebook page and Instagram were ultra-successful. And the most popular request was Sakuragi Hanamichi on Chicago Bulls uniform. Yes, I did it for all you guys who liked, shared and made comments! You are all awesome!

The said artwork was at the previous post in this website, go check it out!

I’m posting here right now some goodies—mobile wallpapers for you to download. It’s not much but I took the time and effort required because you gave me much love. I appreciate it, guys.

The promo image I used on FB and IG

The other promo image I used on FB and IG

You can save or download this image for free and use it on your phone. Because I love you.

You can save or download this image for free and use it on your phone. And please don’t complain about my signature—it’s my signature! 🤩

Please do follow my Facebook page Art of Erik Pingol, Sports Illustrator and my Instagram account Erik Pingol for more cool artworks. Thanks, all. You are cool.

Kobe v MJ

Kobe Bryant vs. Michael Jordan by Erik Pingol

After my digital watercolor exploration on the previous Shaq-Kobe piece, I got a little closer to the effect that I wanted with this one. I just need the right brush. But this is a bit close.

I just love drawing basketball shoes 😍

The Shaq-Kobe Era

Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal in digital painting by Erik Pingol

This is my first attempt in digital painting. Or at least the “digital painting” as we know it. I was actually hoping it would be watercolor-esque but it ended up differently (than what I expected and/or wanted). But I liked it.

This marks the time when I was exploring around digital painting. This marks the time when my favorite era of the NBA was dominated by these two geniuses —Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant! What a time to be a Laker fan.

Thanks and credits to Gettyimages and Andrew D. Bernstein for the wonderful reference photo