Re-imagining a map: South Asia & Australasia

A year before the odyssey of North America: Portrait of a Continent began, I drew another large map. Spanning from Pakistan to New Zealand, South Asia & Australasia took six months to complete and was foundational for my style.

Sulawesi, Indonesia. Before and after digital revision.

I retired prints in 2020, when North America was released. I do wish to print it again, but not without upgrades. I was an amateur when I drew it in 2013 and, put simply, it could be better.

I figured a few tweaks would suffice, so in September I fired up Photoshop and went to work. But as it progressed, the "tweaks" morphed into a total re-imagining. This pencil/digital hybrid is a lot of fun, and I may re-release the map in this updated form one day. Wild World remains my priority for now.

So - this blog is the untold story of the South Asia map. Born out of a difficult time in my life, this project kicked off my career in mapmaking. The blog also discusses the upgrades, the nature of digital vs. traditional, and breathing new life into an old map.

A large segment of the map - much of the land upgraded, but nothing applied to the ocean yet.

---

Before the maps - life on the road

In 2013, I had just returned to New Zealand after two years criss-crossing North America. I was 23, working as a line cook, and living an exhausting, transitory life.
​
I would set up base in a new city, work kitchens for a few months, save just enough money to move on… and do it all again. Despite its tax on well-being, this life was exciting. It's good to let adventures roll when you're young... to travel, to experience the beauty and danger of life. To keep an open mind about the future.

​​I didn’t know it then, but those travels were building my future. They were fun but also chaotic, often difficult. But such is life. Those adventures were teaching me about the real world.

Working as a cook in Montréal - 2012.

Young people feel great pressure to go straight to university after high school. For many it’s a good move, or even essential. But in some cases, giving your existing passions space to grow might be better.

I wasn't passionate about the restaurant industry, but I loved to travel. Back then, my primary passion was music. I had dreams of playing guitar across America - instead I'd found myself cooking brunch in Canada.

The fridge map in Montréal that ushered in so much.

However, since moving overseas, my childhood obsession with maps and geography was reignited. Finally, at 21, I saw the world outside of New Zealand. And while music was my dream... geography and art began to take over.

In late 2012, I drew a detailed map of North America on a refrigerator. Two years marveling at continental geography found an outlet: the old fridge in my Montréal share house. From there I was hooked. This fridge is often discussed, as it became the draft for North America: Portrait of a Continent.

​Much less discussed is the map that came between them: South Asia & Australasia.

Fridge details.

---

Isolation in Perth

Perth, Western Australia. The world's most isolated continental city.

After the Montréal ​fridge, I returned to New Zealand. Instead of settling there, or in Melbourne where much of my family are, I chose to keep the transitory life. A friend offered me a cooking job in Perth, and I wanted to see the Indian Ocean. Once again, I chose the road.
​
Here in Perth, the spell of the travel bug began to wane. I had grown to hate the kitchen. I had no direction, and my mental and physical health went downhill. I realised that while the adventure had been great, I needed to consider my future. What did I want to do? Who did I want to be?

I didn't know the answers. In the world's most isolated city, I felt isolated from my home, New Zealand. From my family in Melbourne. I felt isolated from my North American adventures, and from an exciting future. I fell into depression. I was battling serious health problems, working a high-stress job, and drinking too much.

Some original planning for South Asia & Australasia, including the grid system I used to outline coastlines.

I had a refuge however - a new map. It was a port in a storm. Ever since the fridge, I'd been desperate to map again. So when I arrived in Perth, I purchased a large piece of mat-board (1x1.5 metres/5x3 ft) from a local framer. Great for drawing, the board was canvas and easel all in one.

I wished to become familiar with my new region, and chose a swathe of Earth with Perth at the central meridian. Asia was enticingly close to me, so the map covered all of the Indian subcontinent, southern China, and Southeast Asia. This plus Australia and New Zealand.

​And so began South Asia & Australasia. 

---

A huge map, underway

As a kid, I was an avid artist. I drew many maps. But music had been everything since my teens. For years, I devoted woefully little time to drawing. Commencing South Asia was both a return to an early passion, and an exciting new experiment.
​
I loved it immediately. Drawing it distracted me from depression, fear and illness. It taught me about the world, while I watched my skills improve each day. It was both a healer and a portal to the wider world.

Watching the map from bed as the sun sets through the etched glass windows (the map was drawn in my bedroom).

And it was just so damn fun! For six months, I worked on it in my free time. I’d get home after a heated day in the kitchen, have a shower, crack a beer, and dive in. I drew it in my bedroom, and saw it the moment I woke. Before leaving to work each morning, I'd glance back at the map, longing to be drawing instead.

A very early segment of the map.

It started in Pakistan and ended in New Zealand. The quality gap between start and finish is enormous. Through the Asia section, I worked quickly, without going too deep with research. I was just remembering how to draw again.

​And the sheet of board was huge! Back then I couldn't fathom drawing maps that took years. Spending ages on each detail seemed insane, I figured doing so would make finishing impossible. Thus, the early artwork was quite rushed and experimental.

West Papua, Indonesia. Before digital upgrades.

As the months went by, the hours began to add up. I moved through China, into Indonesia, towards Australia. I was becoming a much better artist. I took more time with details. My animals were looking better. Local friends were excited for how Australia might look, and the power of mapping began to reveal itself.
​
As I drew Australia, things really evolved. The small number of cities meant more time with each skyline. The vibrant colours of the Outback were a great test. Overall, it was looking a lot more polished.

Australia-in-progress (2013).

Finally, I reached New Zealand. A country whose coastlines and relief I could draw with my eyes closed. It’s very small on this map, so I couldn't fit much detail. But it was sublime to be illustrating my home country.

Drawing my home of New Zealand was a wonderful experience.

After NZ, I took to the ocean. In my opinion, this is the weakest aspect of the map. It is bathymetric, so it shows the undersea relief. But unlike the smoothed, fish-filled ocean of North America, the ocean here is scribbly and lifeless.

​I did not know about tortillons/paper stumps (for pencil smoothing) back then, but mainly I was rushing. I’d decided to move to Melbourne, and my time in Perth was almost up. I simply had to finish the map.

---

Map completed, time for a change

South Asia & Australasia - (2013)

It was January 2014 and finally, I signed it off. Over six months, in my free time, I'd put in enough hours to unlock a new skill. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. The map introduced so much hope and purpose into my life. Concern I might waste my artistic ability was gone. Instead, I was wondering if this could be a career.
​
Because it was drawn on a sheet of card, it couldn't be rolled and shipped to Melbourne. I had Pack & Send build a large wooden box, wrapped the art inside, and sent it trucking across the Nullarbor to my mother’s house.

Signed off on the key/cartouche.

Proofing and rolling North America prints on top of the wooden box that contains South Asia & Australasia. (Before the map-rolling table). Early 2020.

​The original still sits in that same box. I actually used it to roll my very first North America prints this year (before a friend built me a map-rolling table).

​Once in Melbourne, I had two things in mind. First, start a map of North America (which I did, and so commenced the Portrait of a Continent). And second, get South Asia scanned and printed. People had asked about prints a lot, and I knew it’d be an important step.

Meanwhile, I left the kitchen forever. I took the most non-stressful job I could find: photocopy/print guy at a local school. I wanted something easy to (barely) pay the bills, while mapping in my spare time. Changing toner made for much calmer mornings than cooking 200 breakfasts.

With my first ever print of a map - 2014.

I built my first website and began selling giclée prints. Along with the full map, I offered crops of Australia, Southeast Asia, and a limited edition run of New Zealand. Those initial sales were decent, and the original South Asia prints are floating around (mostly in Australia/NZ, but a handful in the US and UK).

I was amazed how quickly this hobby had pulled me out of a dreadful place in my life... and into something exciting, diverse and new. It was still early days, but I'd turned a corner.

I also turned a corner straight into a five-year map, so the work had barely begun! But finally, I was building something.

---

Re-imagining a map with Photoshop

Chiang Mai and a Thai elephant. 2013 original (L) and 2020 upgrade (R).

​
Over the years labouring through North America, South Asia was all I sold. I retired prints last year to focus on the N.A. release, plus it didn't meet my standards anymore. Its myriad flaws - from the scribbly ocean to a rushed Asia – bug me whenever I see it. I still print it upon request, and people do like the original. Being the artist, I guess I'm the most critical. Still, before I run lithographs I want to upgrade it.

So this September, I took a break from my new map (Wild World) to do just that. I gained considerable Photoshop experience preparing North America for print, and felt I knew how to update South Asia. My main goal was to improve the ocean, but I also wanted to adjust colours and tweak some details.

​I applied a Dust and Scratches filter to the ocean, which definitely helped. I played with Curves and Levels, and had it looking bolder. Then, I went to India and started tweaking details. And it was here that it all began to escalate…

A segment of ocean before (L) and after (R) applying the Dust and Scratches filter.

​The power of Photoshop began to reveal itself. I realised that, of course, I could make any change I wanted to! Back with North America, I redrew vast swathes of it. It was brutal. Over many months, I scratched off immense amounts of pen with a knife. It was manual, delicate and painfully slow... but I still did it. So, imagine how I felt seeing the ease and speed of Photoshop edits.

As with all my projects, it escalated sharply as the weeks went on. My “little tweaks” turned into a complete re-imagining of the map. I went from adding touches of colour to cities, to 100% re-drawing every single one. I marveled at the ease of perfecting an archipelago. My digital animals were looking better all the time.

---

Finishing South Asia & Australasia... again!

The map took on a new character, but it isn't unfaithful to the original. All the organic noisiness of traditional art is a great asset when drawing digitally, and I try to use what's already there. While much I'm drawing is brand new, I take pleasure in moulding mountains and shifting labels. With the orangutan above, for example, it retains the same pose while also being transformed.

​So we get to the present day. I’ve already redrawn the Indian subcontinent, SE Asia, the Philippines, and most of Indonesia. Still ahead are China, Taiwan, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, the cartouche... and the ocean. The dust filter helped, but the ocean needs a lot more work. I may apply a bathymetry model to the map and get crazy. And without a doubt, there’ll be sea creatures!

This re-imagined South Asia & Australasia is an interesting work-in-progress. I don’t know how it will pan out, but I’m excited to see. The method and original base make it quite unique. Once Wild World is released, I may finish this digital work and re-release South Asia.

No matter how much you love traditional mediums, it’s difficult to be an illustrator or cartographer today without some digital expertise. This is partly why the North America map took forever. It has been very enjoyable experimenting with digital tools, even though I feel hand-drawn/traditional generally leads to superior artwork.

Bhutan and Tibet after digital upgrades.

After five years on North America, I hoped I wouldn’t start anything extensive. Instead, I have two on the go. I'm drawing a massive project in Wild World, and have a half-completed South Asia to consider as well. A break might have been nice, but when it comes to creating, the art often takes control and leads the way. You can try to bend it to your will, but it may not let you.

One day I may learn to draw smaller maps, but all I can do is follow my curiosity. And so it is with adventure.

​-Anton

---

Thanks so much everybody, I hope you enjoyed this blog. You can see many more close-ups of South Asia & Australasia, and subscribe to be notified if prints are ever re-released, right here.