Baseline BTS: Steph Curry

Baseline BTS brings you behind the curtain to see what went into the supporting illustrations for The Baseline Review. Editor and Creative Director JP Boneyard shares his insight into the process. Next up is Steph Curry from Ben Taylor's story How Curry Changed the Game, illustrated by Ryan Pancoast.

The Concept
The illustration ties in with the line “Curry was basketball's Oppenheimer, the league’s St. Sebastian”. In the early days of his rise, Curry caught the ire of traditionalists who love the post game and people that thought he was just chucking up random shots. The sanctity of the game was being compromised. Curry's offensive prowess from deep forced the league to adapt and change. In some ways this new style destroyed the old—like Oppenheimer. In other ways he helped convert the league to a new religion that wasn't well received at first—like St. Sebastian. We leaned into the latter because St. Sebastian is also the patron saint of athletes and archers. That sure sounds a lot like Curry to us. 

We asked Ryan to work in a little easter egg to tie in the Oppenheimer reference: Curry's wrist has a tattoo that reads “I am become death” in Latin. So we have a nerdy guy in 2024 quoting a profoundly nerdy guy in 1945 who is citing Hindu scripture. And we represent it as a Latin translation of a botched English translation of a Hindu text. Makes sense, right?

Supporting Illustration from our Story How Curry Changed the Game

The Inspiration
St. Sebastian was a martyr who was tied to a tree—and shot with arrows—for converting Romans to Catholicism. We didn't want to depict Curry with a bunch of arrows in him. The connotation there felt too violent in the context of this story. It also helps us differentiate from a legendary interpretation of another athlete as St. Sebastian (in that story the piercing arrows are totally apt).

Italian Baroque painter Carlo Dolci created a beautiful work that depicts Sebastian alive and well, gazing up at the heavens. This felt like the perfect reference for Ryan's painting. It felt even more perfect since Ryan often uses oil paints on canvas or boards. We love that he worked in Steph's celebratory hand gesture but still kept his gaze affixed upon the heavens. Instead of the arrows piercing Curry's side, they are delicately held in his hand. The care, skill, and craft Ryan put into this one still blows us away. I have the original 18x24" painting in my office and I'm in awe every day I look at the painting. I know Ryan isn't really into hoops, so I appreciate his openness to this collaboration. Ryan, you're the best! 

St. Sebastian painting by Carlo Dolci (1616–1686)

Color Palette
We leaned into the emotional quality of Baroque painting to evoke that sense of awe that painters from this era often went for. This is analogous to Steph's game: you watch the man for five minutes and you're going to be in awe of something he does—even if he doesn't have the ball. We turned up the saturation a bit from the original while still going for the moody interplay between light and shadows found in Baroque paintings. The sense of divine commune—or rapture—is in here, too. 

One of the few digital updates we made was to change the orange contrasting color of the robe (seen more prominently in an alternate version of the original painting). It's my bad for not calling this out before the painting was started. This detail stood out once I put the image into our story template. Sometimes you need to see work in a different context to get a better understanding of how certain elements are working. Pulling the yellow from Steph's jersey felt like a better fit for the spot color of the robe. Ryan was kind enough to update that color digitally though the bulk of the illustration was beautifully painted by hand. 

Ryan Pancoast's process on the supporting illustration for How Curry Changed the Game

The Cover
Even though we're depicting Steph as a seasoned champion the cover evokes a little of his “baby-faced assassin” vibe. This fits well with theme of religious works in Baroque painting à la the little cherubs that are often depicted. Since the full page illustration is a little more serious in tone we wanted to show Steph's joy for the game on the cover. This also supports the line “Joy, tenacity, and constant motion” from the story. Here we see Steph still looking at the heavens or at the hooks that attach a net to the rim (that's where Curry says he focuses his eyes when shooting). Ryan also painted this one by hand on a board. It feels like such a nice representation of Curry and his energy.

Cover from our story How Curry Changed the Game

TL;DR
Steph Curry is like basketball's St. Sebastian. He helped convert the league into prioritizing the three ball and he wasn't universally loved for it at first. After the dust has settled Curry now feels analogous to Sebastian as the patron saint of archers (or the three point snipers) and athletes. Ryan painted both supporting illustrations by hand in the Baroque style that references the original St. Sebastian painting by Carlo Dolci. The full page illustration leans into divine commune and the cover leans more into joy while still looking toward the heavens / the hooks that attach a net on the rim. The print and the actual paintings are stunning in person. 

Bring it In
This has been another installment of Baseline BTS with Editor and Creative Director JP Boneyard. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about the player, the supporting illustrations, and the creative energy that went into this work. We appreciate you!