Creating a Paradise Travel Map - Finished Art

This is the final installment in my Tristan da Cunha Paradise Travel Map series.

It may not be immediately evident by looking at it, but I spent a lot of late night and early morning hours working on this map...three months and 65 hours, to be exact. I started on it on March 23rd and finished on June 23rd. I must be a glutton for punishment to work on these travel maps in my off-hours since it's how I spend most of my on duty time, working on cartoon map projects. (www.funmapsusa.net)

All of the text and header lettering were done by hand. Having taught myself to hand-letter in eighth grade has served me very well over the years. I drew the map on paper with Micron pens, then scanned it into Photoshop and colored in with a Wacom Cintiq. Prior to beginning the artwork, I spent many hours researching the island so that I could intelligently portray it graphically.

If you haven't been following my articles, some time ago I discovered a far-flung, remote, populated island in the South Atlantic. It was Tristan da Cunha. I found it to be such a fascinating locale that I was inspired to create a map of the island to add to my Paradise Travel Map collection.

One of the first things that I want to do with the map is to send it as an attachment to the editor of the Tristan da Cunha newsletter, plus some other prominent Tristan islanders. That should come as a huge surprise to them since Tristan is rarely if ever mapped at all because of it's remoteness. I have yet to see a single map of the sole settlement on the island, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. My Edinburgh of the Seven Seas inset map may be the only such map in existence.  

I might point out that the map was created in CMYK so the colors are very gaudy onscreen. I wish there was some way that this problem could be corrected.

If you have any ideas for a Paradise Travel Map, I welcome your suggestions.

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?

Creating a Paradise Travel Map - Part 2

This is the second in a series of posts describing the steps that I follow in creating a Paradise Travel Map. This promises to be one of my favorite maps, because it will feature one of the most unique places in the world, the island of Tristan da Cunha. Located in the South Atlantic Ocean, Tristan da Cunha is the most remote inhabited island on earth. It has been a fascinating place to study.

You can get a closer look at the island and its inhabitants by way of  these YouTube clips. Here's one from Where's Andrew? Then, Andrew's return to Tristan da Cunha. I would venture to say that very few people have visited Tristan da Cunha twice...it's just too hard to get to. You can't fly there because there's no airstrip. It requires a seven-day boat ride from South Aftrica or England, and the scheduled ship only sails about once every month or two. So once you arrive on Tristan, you must be prepared to stay a while.

In my first Tristan da Cunha post you got a glimpse of the research that creates the foundation for the map. From that research I begin to put the map together in pieces. The first section that I completed was the title and subtitle. I went ahead and inked that, knowing that there would not likely be any modifications needed on the title. So it is now ready for the color phase.

Next came the map frame and corner panels. If you enlarge the above image you can get a closer look at the contents of the panels. I chose two unique creatures that are part of the island fauna for the top panels: on the left, the Tristan thrush, endemic to the island. And on the top right, the Northern Rock Hopper penquin. I learned that these comedic creatures do actually hop from rock to rock along the coastline of the island, as opposed to the Jackass penguins 1500 miles to the east in South Africa that sort of stroll around.

I chose two endemic species of flora for the bottom two panels: on the left, the Nertura depressa, a type of bead plant. On the right: Epymenia flabellata, a species of seaweed that flourishes in the waters surrounding the island.

After inking the frame and corner panels, I began to pencil in the island map itself, which will include the island's volcanic cone. It erupted in 1961, sending the island's inhabitants fleeing to England. After penciling in the land mass, I lettered all the names that define the coastline around the island. That's as far as I've come at this point.

The only town on the island, called "the Settlement" by locals, is Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. I'm considering  drawing an inset map of Edinburgh below and to the right of the island. This might possibly be the only map ever drawn and published of this most remote village. Then, directly to the right of the island I  plan to create a parchment-style document page on which I will scribe some of the most interesting factoids regarding the island.

Another decision that I will soon have to make is whether or not to create a back side to the map. There is so much to say about Tristan da Cunha that more art and text could easily spill over to the back side. Stay tuned for an update on my progress soon.

Have you seen my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles?