Hey guys! Hope you’re having a great week so far!
I’m settling back into UK life at the moment after my travels around Asia & Australia for the last 7 months.
Myself and my younger brother are going back out there in a couple of weeks, traveling around Tasmania, New Zealand, Indonesia and Malaysia, before coming back here for good!
But you can’t get rid of me that easily, I’ll still be uploading great content on a regular basis, and of course illustrating for freelance commissions too.
As a result of all of this traveling, with new experiences, memories, and of course a dent in my wallet (to be expected!), I’ve been very inspired by capturing these places as illustrations, which is where illustrated maps comes in!
As a map illustrator myself (as I love a good old map illustration!), this is the perfect way to illustrate all of the different places I’ve been seeing.
I have recently illustrated this new map of New York City, one of my favourite travel destinations, and a place which I visited on 3 separate occasions, twice with University, and once seeing a friend who lived out there!
It’s a very addictive and buzzing place, and I would happily go back again.
As a result, I thought I would illustrate this new illustrated map of this great city, and bolster my illustration portfolio to really show off my skills as an ‘Map Illustrator’.
How It Looked Before Editing….
However, it’s not actually new at all. I originally painted the map a few years ago for a University project, which was painted with gouache and watercolour.
My style and technique has developed and improved since then (I hope so anyway), so the original is quite rusty.
You can see the original illustration below!
Original New York Map Illustration – October 2013
I decided to release it back into the wild, and edit the hell out of it before I was happy with how it looks. As I was originally happy with it’s composition and colour back in 2013, so I thought, why not edit it now and include it within my portfolio?
You can see the mistakes and how my illustration ‘style’ used to look. (A bit embarrassing to be honest – but it gives you a sense of where I have come from!)
And After Editing…(Much Better!)
A few years ago I didn’t edit my illustrations at all after painting them. However I now scan all of my illustrations into Adobe Photoshop to remove mistakes, neaten it up and make it more appealing on the eye.
Here’s the final (edited to the max) map illustration of New York City below.
New York Illustrated Map – April 2018 (after editing)
This map of NYC features the brilliant Empire State Building, the classic Statue of Liberty, and the iconic Central Park – all places which are essential to anyone visiting the American city!
I think it looks a lot better! Straight lines, no paint marks going in all directions, and removing the hard to read typography.
I’m really happy with how this illustration has turned out, and even more so to showcase more of my skills and talents as a map illustrator – a subject that I want to dedicate my portfolio towards.
If you want to check out my other illustrations, do check out my illustration portfolio and my design portfolio too! See what’s going on with me at the moment by hitting up my blog for the latest juicy content, illustrator news and much more!
Thanks guys, and I hope you enjoy this post!
Many thanks for listening and visiting my news page today. You can follow what I’m up to on my Twitter, Facebook or Google + pages, I’ll really appreciate it if you do, and don’t be afraid to say hi to me! Many thanks again, and have a great day!
17th April 2018
