Sterling Hundley jokes that he became an illustrator because his professional basketball career never took off.

The 6-foot-2 Hundley played hoops at Mills Godwin High School -- "I used to carry a basketball around with me," he said.

"But the truth is that I just wasn't that naturally gifted," he said. "I had to work hard, and I guess I took that same drive and ambition into the arts," his first love and true gift.

That drive has paid off for Hundley, now 31 and not a pro basketball player, but an accomplished illustrator and professor of communication arts at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The Society of Illustrators has awarded Hundley two gold medals in its annual competition -- the highest annual honors for American illustrators and the profession's version of film's Oscars -- for illustrations he created for Vir ginia Living magazine and a poster for the production of Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" in Washington.

The society awards gold and silver medals in six categories, including editorial, book, sequential, advertising, institutional and uncommissioned.

Hundley's award-winning illustration, "Shipwreck," was created for the Departure page of Virginia Living, accompanying his short story about a shipwrecked mariner who gets married and honeymoons in the stranded boat while awaiting its return to sea.

Tyler Darden, the art director at Virginia Living and a teacher at VCU, also won a gold medal for art direction of the shipwreck piece. "It was a breathtaking and beautiful piece," Darden said of Hundley's work.

"His figures are so elegant -- they are beautiful from a storytelling vantage point."

It is the second straight year that Hundley and Darden have won medals for their work in Virginia Living. "For that to happen is like lightning striking twice," Darden said.

Hundley's other medal-winning illustration for "Death of a Salesman" was commissioned by Arena Stage in Washington with art direction by Ann Marie Czaban.

The two gold medals bring Hundley's medal count to five -- three gold and two silver -- four of which have been awarded in the past three years. His work has appeared regularly in the Society of Illustrators Annual, as well as in such magazines as Rolling Stone, Runner's World, Entertainment Weekly, Vibe, Esquire, the New Yorker and GQ.

"It is the pinnacle of what I have always aspired to," said Hundley, a Chesterfield County resident. "Aside from having a career in art that has been able to sustain my life, it is just being acknowledged by your peers."

Hundley isn't the only Virginia illustrator being recognized by the society. Artist and VCU professor of communication arts Robert Meganck's illustrations for a poster of the upcoming Barksdale Theatre production of "Doubt: A Parable" and a CD cover for the local band Farm Vegas have been selected for inclusion in the society's 50th annual exhibition.

"It is an honor to get into this exhibition," Meganck said. "It is very, very competitive."
Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or jblackwell@timesdispatch.com.