Tucson Origins: Cultural Heritage Tourism
Tucson in 1810: an imaginary view from Sentinel Peak (click image for detail)
This project was an illustrated interpretive guide for the San Agustín Mission Garden reconstruction in the Tucson Origins Heritage Park. The challenge was this: nothing exists of the former buildings and garden–the area has been a landfill for decades. My painting of the Tucson basin in 1810, when it was settled by the Spanish along with O'odham Indians had to be completely recreated from source material. I worked with archeaologists, historians, and museum curators to complete this painting.
A visitor's walking guide to the reconstructed mission garden. In addition to designing the map, I painted spot illustrations of foods grown during different historic periods of Tucson's development.
Toss Your Cookies
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Paul's llustrations for "Toss Your Cookies",
a new award-winning game by Gamewright.
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At The
Dice Tower.com, where "real men play board games," game
industry reviewer Tom Vasel had this to say about "Toss Your Cookies":
With wonderful drawings and terrific, sturdy components, Toss
Your Cookies is a nice variant on the game idea introduced in the public domain “spoons”.
Players are attempting to collect cookies that are of the same type,
along with a glass of milk. While the game might bore adults (although
there’s
some frenetic moments which are quite hilarious), I’ve found that kids
enjoy it – as much for the simple, fun game play as well as the beautiful
components. Although we really want to eat cookies when the game is over
(the artwork is THAT good), it’s a good kid’s game that I enjoy
playing with them, and it handles up to eight players...
Each of the cookies is a large round cardboard tile, showing a depiction
of a different type of cookie. While the cookies are not actual pictures,
they are certainly drawn well enough to evoke salivation from players
and cries of hunger for cookies. The cookies are so realistic looking
that I sadly have bite marks in one which one of my children thought
was an enjoyable snack. The pleasant theme is one that will attract kids to
the game, and anyone who still has the urging for the joy that is known as “cookie”...
—Tom Vasel
“Real men play board games”
Building on Nature
The construction of the new education building at the Arizona-Sonora Desert
Museum was behind schedule. There was no way to produce photographs of
the finished building in time for the newsletter. The situation called
for an illustrator. The designer and I decided to go with a sketchbook
style. I drew buildings and elements frm the environment based on several
visits to the construction site. After all the building was to be home
for the Desert Museum Art Institute, and the wild desert was this close
to the building.
A Monumental Saguaro Poster
 
Click on the saguaro chart to see a huge enlargement in a new window.
This 6 foot tall poster, illustrated by Paul Mirocha
and designed by Nancy Campana Design, for the National Park System, is
a height chart. While learning lots of interesting things about the Sonoran
Desert and other creatures, both small and big, who dwell there, they
can compare their progress in life to that of the mighty saguaro cactus.
There is even a companion board book for those who can not yet stand
upright. Published by Western National Parks Association in 2007.
The board book gets an award
The Saguaro height chart poster's companion board book for children, A Desert Hello: Welcome to the Sonoran Desert, seems to have outshone it's parent! The Association of Partners for Public Lands 2008 Media and Partnership Awards gave it first place for Children's Media. The poster received honorable mention.
As with all of Paul's books and posters, you can order this item signed by
Paul Mirocha with his studio discount. Please email Paul for
details.
Saguaro Height Chart: $11.95 (retail is $14.95)
Comes in a clear plastic tube with an insert that give even more fun
details about desert animals. Please add $7.00 shipping for tube and new postal
rates.
Saguaro Board Book: $4.95 plus shipping (retail $6.95)
A lizard in the bush...
In this ad, placed in several dermatology journals, Doctors know
that when one of these skin lesions shows up, there are many more like
it just waiting to appear. You can't just treat the visible symtoms.
The creative director came up with the concept of chameleons in the
bush to visualize this problem. I did several visualiztions to show
their client. They got the job and this is the resulting layout.
A new Quaker Oats flavor
When Quaker Oats wanted to promote their new wild berry flavors,
the photographs of the bowl of oatmeal just did not do the trick. The
ad agency called on me to do a super-realistic digital painting of the
oatmeal and montaged it with the bicycle image by illustrator Katy Dockrill.
It was an unknowing, but delicious collaboration.
Public Health in Africa
This is the concept for a magazine spread that the art director at the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health gave me to work from. He wanted
complex medical data portrayed visually, showing geographical changes
in health issues from very rural to urban settings in Africa, as well
as changes over time, using maps and illustrations.
This is the final result. It was simple, engaging, and had an understated
African look and feel.
In another fold out spread for the same magazine, the reader gets a
short introductory course on the sources and health effects of lead in
the environment. Click it for a larger image.
Medicinal Herbs in the mainstream
This article in a mainstream medical journal outlines
ways doctors can use simple centuries old remedies from nature for
the common "tummy-ache". As the article says, most of these complaints
are caused by the stresses of growing up and may be eased in simple ways
before resorting to expensive tests. After all, chamomile worked for
Peter Rabbit. I read it with great interest and now use them myself.
To quote the art director, "This is going to be beautiful!
I’ve just passed it to the editors; will get their feedback tomorrow
and let you know. I like your placement of the art on the cover – the
way it works with the type.
A place in the web of life
Perhaps a difficult subject: DEATH. Especially that of an elk
with all that good meat going to the coyotes. But, in fact, individual
death enables life in general to continue.
Here's the scecs from the
editors of Bugle Magazine:
Illustration 1 – late fall scene - dried grasses, fallen
leaves, perhaps a little snow – with the elk lying dead on the forest
floor but fully intact, ribs showing through the hide, and a raven, coyote
and magpie coming onto the scene. The idea is to show the body before it was
being fed upon, with perhaps one of the birds sitting on it or near it, the
other in the air, and a coyote on the way. They all know it’s there,
in other words.
Illustration 2 – spring scene with wildflowers, green trees and grasses,
etc. Show some bones which are bleached white in the sun – perhaps part
of the ribcage, some leg bones – with a mouse chewing on one of them. The
wildflowers should be blooming around the bones, their color setting off the whiteness
of the bleached bone.
A bit complex? And potentially gruesome. I had to argue a bit with them for
something that was working as an illustration should, not trying to imitate
a photograph--just blandly repeating the facts in the text. But they
accepted my ideas and this is the result. I know that poppies really
would be closed at night, but this is kind of an imaginary scene...
A map for hummingbird watchers
This map for Sunset Magazine demonstrates how a map can define
and integrate the layout of a page. Here the reader can see at a glance
the best places to go and see hummingbirds in southeast Arizona--one
of the best places in the world to see them.
Photoshop: The Visual Quickstart Guide
Now you can see more of Paul's work while you learn from one
of the best Photoshop books around. The Visual Quickstart Guide to Photoshop CS and CS2 by
Elaine Weineman and Peter Lourekas (Peachpit
Press) displays a selection of
Paul's digital paintings in its gallery section.
Southwest Discovery Blocks
 
This set of stacking blocks for kids was created with paper engineer
Rhod Lauffer for the Western
National Parks Association. It has been called a
"tower of learning", not to be confused with an ivory tower. It's kind
of fun for adults too.
Hi-tech follows nature in ad series
   
For this series of ads for Trimble Navigation, the art director
wanted to create a 19th century science illustration feel in comparing these
talented animals to these hi-tech global positioning devises.
Small Wonder
 
It was a privelidge to collaborate directly with Barbara, the
author, to create this cover image for the first edition of her book, "Small
Wonder".
The concept came from a vague dream image she had as she was finishing
the writing. I also had an image of a cover in my mind. I put them
together and now everyone can see it.
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