Sketches from Tumamoc Hill

Tumamoc Hill is one of my favorite places to paint. I've been going up to Tumamoc Hill regularly to make quick on-location paint sketches.  All are painted with Casein on 9" x 12" Strathmore paper.

In these paintings, I am paying close attention to getting the subtle colors of the "desert pallete" which I can only get from on-location painting. Even the best reference photos distort the true colors of the desert. Often, I take these sketches back to my studio and create a full blown oil painting using these as reference.

1-25-15

2-22-15

3-16-15

3-30-15

For more info on Tumamoc, visit the website: http://tumamocsketchbook.com

Centennial Park, Tucson

I created three signs for Centennial Park, just north of downtown Tucson in the El Presidio neighborhood.

I always learn a lot when I work on historic and science illustrations. I did a lot of research for this one. I talked to scientists, historians, engineers and my Tohono O'odham friends and I learned that Tucson may have the oldest irrigation canals in North America. This irrigation technology was most likely developed right here in the Santa Cruz River valley. This illustration traces the use of water here for the last 4000 years.

This a view inside the old Presidio of Tucson circa 1800. The Presidio was built as protection from hostile Apache raids in the late 1700s. This is the birthplace of the city of Tucson. Although the old adobe wall is gone, there is a recreation on location at the north east end of the old site. I painted a 50 foot mural there in 2007.

This is an illustration of some of the historic houses on Main Avenue north of downtown Tucson. My son Dan did the photos and a lot of the photoshop work on this one.

I did everything on these signs: concept, illustration, design and layout, and prep for printing.