I had the pleasure of creating a watercolor painting for the sole purpose of putting it on a trucker hat for Irvington High School’s track & field and cross country teams in Fremont, California. The most recognizable peak in Fremont is Mission Peak. It’s barely a foothill by my Utah standards at a mere 2,516 feet in elevation, but it’s by far the most well-known by residents in the area. Since I grew up in neighboring Newark, California, I know this peak well.
I don’t live in the area anymore, so I had to use images from Google as reference and we went with a viewpoint as close to the high school’s as possible. The color of the hills themselves varies on the time of year. In spring, the hills are a vibrant green, depending on how much rain they got in the winter. By late summer, the hills turn to a harvest gold color, and become a huge fire hazard! I have always thought they are pretty in either colors, but I know some hate the gold, calling it brown instead.
This was such a joy to paint and I LOVE how the hats turned out. I designed the IHS logo that we added. Irvington’s track and XC coach had the hats printed with Boco Gear in Colorado. He actually had two hats made; one with the painting and another that was solely a running hat in white with just the viking logo that I designed earlier this year. They both turned out awesome.
I know they are planning to use the hats for a little bit of fundraising, so I am excited to see what kind of money they bring to their track & field program this coming spring.
You can watch a timelapse video of my process with this painting here. This view of Mission Peak is close to what can be seen from Irvington High School.
I really had a hard time getting my iPhone camera to capture the correct lighting when doing this painting. It looks pretty washed out in the video. One one snippet, I turned off my overhead light and just used the natural light in my office, but I couldn’t keep that up as I worked on this well into the night. Maybe there’s a light setting on my phone that I can mess with?
Patrick, the track and XC coach at Irvington HS had a second hat made with the logo I created. This one is a running hat and he went with a simple topographic map design that Boco Gear already had. It’s such a comfortable and lightweight hat. And it looks rad with the Irvington logo.
This was such a fun project! I cannot wait to see what other paintings I can make to be turned into hats!