Creating a Paradise Travel Map - Part 10

This is the tenth in a series of articles describing my process in creating a Paradise Travel Map. Feel free to scroll down to see all of the previous posts.

The coloring process is moving ahead, slowly but surely. The left two corner panels are now completed. Also finished, the Five Finger fish, the Tristan Longboat and the Spectacled kestrel, to the left of the island. Most people would never imagine the hours that can be invested in an illustration.  A lot of feather rendering was involved with the Spectacled kestrel in the lower left. I worked on the kestrel for an hour and 15 minutes.

Stay tuned. I'll be posting the next color steps very soon. To see more of my cartoon maps, go to www.funmapsusa.net

Have you seen my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles?

Creating a Paradise Travel Map - Part 9

This is the ninth in a series of articles describing my process in creating a Paradise Travel Map.

What is a Paradise Travel Map? The vast majority of my work as a cartoon cartographer involves working on assignments. I'm hired by corporations, chambers of commerce, city and county governments and private individuals to draw cartoon maps of cities, towns, islands, coastlines. You name it, I've probably drawn it.

A Paradise Travel Map is a map that I've drawn for myself. I come across a place that intrigues me, like Tristan da Cunha above, then I create and market the map myself. Even though the map is not completed yet, I'm already getting a lot of traffic from the UK regarding the Tristan map, because Tristan da Cunha is a British protectorate.

Since my last post, you can see that I've started to tone the water a bit. I gradated darker hues into the water around the edges. I also finished up the inset map of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, the village on Tristan. And I finished the ship on top of Tristao da Cunha, the discoverer of the island.

Stay tuned. I'll be showing more color soon. Have you seen my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles?

Tristan da Cunha - Part 8 - First Color

This is the eighth in a series of installments that describe my process in creating a Paradise Travel Map. This is a map of Tristan da Cunha, a small little-known island in the South Atlantic Ocean that supports a population in one village of under 300. It is considered the most remote inhabited island on earth.

Now that the ink line is finished I have begun applying the color in Photoshop, by way of a Wacom Cintiq. The ocean water color is now flat, but there will be a lot of tonal variation and rendering in the ocean as the color progresses. The descriptive banner to the right also has flat color at this point.

The title banner is finished. You can see that I rendered on top of the flat color to give the banner to "age" it and give it more authenticity and flavor. I also did a lot of toning and tuning and shading in the color letters. All of the lettering on the map is done freehand. I taught myself to do freehand lettering when I was in eighth grade. I'm eternally grateful for learning that skill. It has benefited me almost daily for my entire life.

Have you seen my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles?

Springtime in South Prairie

This afternoon the weather was so beautiful, I felt compelled to throw my leg over my motorcycle and ride to the nearby country town of Orting, in the Puyallup Valley, Washington State, USA. I took some drawing work with me and plugged into the Wi-Fi at Orting McDonald's and worked on my drawing. 

Upon finishing my artwork, I decided to keep riding, so I headed southeast out of Orting on Highway 162 to one of my favorite spots, South Prairie, a rural community in the shadow of Mount Rainier.

To my surprise, I found the meadows along the highway were ablaze with spring wildflowers. I know the montane, sub-alpine and alpine wildflower varieties, but I'm not very familiar with the lowland wildflowers. My best guess is that the white and purple flowers are valerians. But I only know the Sitka valerian that grows in the subalpine zone of the Olympic Moutains in Washington State.

I wish I knew for sure what these beautiful golden flowers are. Many of the fields and meadows along the road were carpeted with them. Upon further checking, it appears that this is a wild mustard field.

More mustard fields, this time with a herd of cattle. I only spent about 45 minutes in South Prairie today before I felt I needed to ride back home. It was a memorable motorcycle adventure.

It's easy to see by the above photos why I'm so glad I live in Washington State. I never take for granted the lush pastoral beauty that is rural Washington, my home state. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Have you seen my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles?

Creating a Paradise Travel Map - Part 7

 This is the seventh in a series of posts describing my process in creating a Paradise Travel Map, in this case, Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island on earth.

Speaking of remote...don't get sick when you're on Tristan. If you do, there's only one doctor on the island. If your condition is serious, you're in big trouble. There's no airport on Tristan, so you can't be airlifted to the nearest hospital. You have to wait for about six weeks for the next mail boat from South Africa. Then you have to endure the long voyage from Tristan da Cunha to Capetown. You could be deceased for several days by the time you finally arrive in Capetown. This is one of many reasons why you would want to think twice before moving to Tristan da Cunha. Of course, you couldn't move there anyway. You have to be a native Tristanian in order to live on the island.

Above is the finished ink line version of the map, with all the elements carefully adjusted and  positioned where I want them. I lettered the title on a separate piece of paper. Then I scanned it and positioned it on top of the map. There is no typesetting on the map. Everything is hand-scribed. The next phase that I will post will be the initial coloring, where I will lay down some of the base colors.

The most enjoyable thing about this project has been learning about Tristan da Cunha. It's been a truly fascinating study. Since I couldn't get everything that I wanted you to know about Tristan onto the map, I'm planning on building a separate page on my cartoon map site, www.funmapsusa.net, so that I can display the map, along with much more detailed information about the island.

Stay tuned for a first look at the color soon.

Have you seen my other web site, The Trowbridge Chronicles? 

Creating a Paradise Travel Map - Part 6

 This is the sixth in a series of posts describing my process in creating a Paradise Travel Map. The illustrated map above is of Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island on earth. All of the previous posts have involved the research, penciling and inking process. I have now completed the inking and hand-scribing process. Everything is now inked and lettered.

Next comes the scanning, which will be done tomorrow morning. Then the title banner, which is on a separate piece of paper, will be scanned and placed on the page. There will also be a lot of shuffling and adjusting of all the elements on the page until everything fits properly. Then it will be ready for the color, which will be done in Photoshop, using my Wacom Cintiq.

Have you seen my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles? 

Creating a Paradise Travel Map - Part 5

 This is the fifth in a series of posts describing my process in creating a Paradise Travel Map. The above map is of Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island in the world.

Since the last post, I have hand-scribed the text that you see in the banner on the right side of the map. Also, I found some space on the bottom right to draw a small map of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, the lone village on the island. This may be the only published map of the village. I haven't been able to find one, other than as it appears as part of the island map.

Now I'm filling in the last open spaces on the map with art. Yesterday I drew the little penguin off-shore on the southeast side of the island. Also the longboat in the water on the left side of the island, and the mileage marker in the top center spot. Three or four more spot illustrations and I should be finished with the line work. Then on to the color.

Have you seen my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles

Creating a Paradise Travel Map - Part 4

This is the fourth in a series of posts describing my process in creating a Paradise Travel Map of the remote South Atlantic island, Tristan da Cunha. If you like, you can review the previous three posts to catch up.

After composing the text in Word describing the island, I carefully ruled and penciled in the text on the right side of the page. Then, using a Micron Pigma no.1 pen, I inked in the text. I had to work very carefully because, as you see,  the "font" size was very small. It takes concentration to maintain control of letter forms at that size.

For all my pencil work, I use the pencil version of the popular Pilot G2 pen, the G2 pencil. My wife found one somewhere a few years ago and bought it for me. Since I do all my writing with a G2 pen, I like drawing with the G2 pencil.

Next I began work on the first of the spot illustrations that will be carefully placed at strategic spots on the map. I wanted to find a picture of Tristao da Cunha, the Portugese explorer who discovered the island, and I did. I found only one image of him online. So I tucked it into the text on the banner, as you can see. It's faint because it's still in pencil. It will be so small that I will need to use a Micron Pigma 005 to ink it.

Then, I moved up to the top of the page. I wanted to include an illustration of da Cunha's ship as it approached the island. It took some research to find what I believe to be the correct ship. a Portugese Carrack ship from the 15th Century. I penciled and inked it on top, near the island. So I will reduce the title banner in Photoshop so it fits between the ship and the upper right corner panel.

I found an open space below the text banner, so I plan to fill it with a small map of the village, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, referred to as "the Settlement" by local islanders. You can see it, still in pencil form. It could possibly be the only published map in existence of the Settlement itself. It's always included as part of a map of the island.

The next post may be the last one to describe all of the pencil and ink preparation work. I will pencil and ink all of the necessary spot artwork in whatever space is still available. Then it will be ready for Photoshop adjustments, then the color. I'm looking forward to applying the color.

Have you seen my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles?