Because we can't reach our studios and workspaces at the University of Arizona’s Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, I've been working on multiple ways of visualizing and mapping landscapes (see TumamocSketchbook.com for a 3D cube visualization of Tumamoc, and a previous Field Arts post here on creating a 3D cube of Cave Creek Canyon).
This time I worked on an aerial view, from the north and several thousand feet above Tumamoc Hill but also trying to show the topography and sense of its place on the Earth. Then, looking directly overhead, I used an old-school "hachure" method to show gradients between contours, and handmade walnut ink that is water soluble, to make the shading (I’ll do a future tutorial on my method for creating an accurate hachure-style map). It’s interesting to compare the two viewscapes side-by-side.
I worked from an aerial photograph of Tumamoc Hill, looking south.
Using a mechanical pencil, I sketched the hill and just a few other landscape features, leaving out the city and hills in the background, to maximize the 3D map effect (sterling silver vintage Parker mechanical pencil with HB graphite).
When I was happy with the proportions and simple marks to show shapes, I inked over the pencil with waterproof ink (Platinum Carbon Black, an archival quality pigment ink, in a refillable cartridge in my vintage Mont Blanc fountain pen).
After I erased the pencil lines, I laid a piece of waxed paper over the drawing (wax-side down) and used a dull pencil to trace just the roadway going from the base up to the top—I wanted to reserve a pale margin over the roadway during the final watercolor washes, below.
Using a damp brush, I first applied yellow ochre and then, when it was mostly dry, a light brushing of red ochre (from (Greenleaf & Blueberry). Note that my brush strokes are in the direction of the slopes, and that I didn’t extend beyond the base of the hill. The drier brush let me feather the color nicely.
Finally, using dry brush technique and my own Tucson Mountains purple ochre and a dark green blended from yellow ochre and Mayan blue (Greenleaf & Blueberry), I added shading and the suggestion of plants.