See how we turn customer photos of Road Kings, Road Glides, Street Glides and other Harley Davidson baggers into detailed custom motorcycle artwork. Explore the reference photos, drawing process and finished pieces created for prints, shirts, signs and more.
This one started with a story.
The owner spent 30 years in the oilfield — offshore most of his career, the last several years in West Texas — and wanted that written into the artwork: pump jacks, desert scrub, and the kind of sunset you only get out where the mountains sit on the horizon. The phrase “It’s Good to Be the King” was worked into the design as a nod to both the Road King name and the years that earned it.
The process:
Reference photos of the bike → rough sketch → digital illustration, shown here as a short time-lapse of the drawing coming together.
2014 Harley-Davidson Road King CVO
The bike itself is a heavily customized CVO Road King, built out with air ride suspension, Carlini apes, a Siouxicide Choppers sissy bar, custom driving lights, and a long list of one-off touches down to the laser-engraved covers. Rather than list every part, the illustration focuses on the details that give the bike its silhouette and stance — the pieces a rider would recognize their own bike by at a glance.
The Result:
Artwork built for multiple uses — a t-shirt, a canvas print for bike shows (displayed on a tripod stand next to the bike itself), and a design flexible enough to eventually work as a full back-piece tattoo.
Street Glide Couple’s Portrait
For this one, the couple wanted artwork of themselves on their 2024 Street Glide. They sent a few photos of themselves and including face close-ups and a couple of bike shots, but the lighting and angles of the bike weren’t quite clear enough to work from directly. To fill in the gaps, a reference photo of the same year and model was used to get the bike’s details right, while the customer’s own photos guided their likenesses.
It’s a common situation — not every photo is shot with artwork in mind. For the best results, daylight shots with even lighting and minimal shadows give the most accurate details to work from, but even when reference photos aren’t perfect, there’s usually a way to piece together an accurate final illustration.
Character Art for Sharky’s Customs
Not every bagger project is a portrait of the bike as-is — sometimes a shop wants a character behind the build. Sharky’s Customs, a shop specializing in custom Harley builds, commissioned a mean-looking, muscular shark character riding one of their customized Road Glide baggers, tattoos and all, done in a toon style that still reads as “TUF” rather than cartoonish.
It’s a popular request from bike shops and MCs who want branding with some attitude — skeletons, gorillas, pigs and other characters riding a Harley-Davidson bagger work the same way, giving a shop or club artwork that’s instantly recognizable as theirs.
See some examples on the Character Design page.
Ready for Your Own Custom Harley-Davidson Bagger Artwork?
Whether it’s a Road King, Street Glide, Road Glide, or your own build, custom bagger artwork is a great way to celebrate your bike or give your shop artwork that stands out. Not sure where to start or looking for a quote? Visit the “Artwork Estimates page” for more info.
