Wild World and its continents(November 2022) Back in 2020, I began drawing a map I'd dreamed of since childhood. A world map of nature. Despite hoping it would take six months, I've now been drawing for over 2 years and there's much to go. This blog is a long-awaited deep dive into Wild World, the map of nature.
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Re-imagining a map: South Asia & Australasia(December 2020) A year before I ever started North America, I drew another large map. South Asia & Australasia (2013) spans from Pakistan to New Zealand. Recently, I started experimenting with digital upgrades to the artwork. Learn the story behind this map, and its updated form.
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The Mississippi River tour (video)(October 2020) Not a blog exactly, but I'm sure fans of the blog will appreciate this video (especially in lieu of a Tour of a North America blog). Join me on a paddle down the Big River, from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.
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North America Map: the Basics(August 2020) This blog unpacks some critical basics about the map that are very important to know. From the projection I used, to city selection and population, to the language of labels... to the very definition of North America.
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A Tour of North America II(April 2020) As the map begins to ship out, it's time for a new tour of North America. 12 new sites to discuss! Take a journey from Big Sur to the forests (yes, forests) of Greenland... the plains of southern Georgia to a Mexican volcano.
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A Tour of North America I(February 2020) The details of the map are virtually endless, and it's critical I share some of the stories it contains. So I reopened my notebook, dived into the map, and picked 12 interesting places and cases to talk about!
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New maps and new mountains(January 2020) Once the map was finished, I had much to learn about printing. But life goes on, and I was drawing new maps in no time - this time for The Washington Post. This blog explores the WaPo piece, an amazing science illustration conference, and an epic trip to Japan...
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How do you finish a map?(December 2019) Perhaps it's never finished, you just... stop. Read about the cartouche design that finished the map, signing it off once and for all, and an incredibly difficult image capture...
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Where on Earth is the map?(September 2018) Written only months before the completion of a behemoth of a map, this blog tells several broad stories about how it came to be, and what it was like while drawing it...
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The Triple Divide(December 2017) After a fairly mindblowing trip to Glacier National Park, Montana, in which I ran into bears, mountain goats and moose, I became fascinated by the Earth's greatest hydrological divide: a peak that sends water to the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic...
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Quick notes on Nevada(August 2017) While drawing North America, it was often the lesser-known places that surprised me. Places that are considered "empty", such as the Arctic, the Canadian Shield, or Nevada. Here I write about what was drawn in the Silver State...
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Trauma in a pictorial map(Feb 2017) Destructive forces are ever-present in geography. Due to earthquakes and fire, drawing Haiti was a lesson in the challenges of depicting trauma, especially as pictorial maps often present an idealised version of the world...
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Son Cubano, Columbus and the painted snail(October 2016) Part two on a deep dive into everything that I drew in Cuba, which was a particular highlight of the years drawing this map. From the rich music of the island to its beautiful painted snails, there is much to explore...
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Fidel’s Revolution, Guantánamo and the thaw(September 2016) Part one on a deep dive into everything drawn in Cuba. With particular focus on its turbulent and fascinating political history, from Fidel's Revolution to the missile crisis, to how I represented Guantanamo Bay...
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