Abstract
Abstract. In February 2019, I put the finishing touches on a map that took four and a half years to complete. What began as a passion project ended up taking over my life, as I became utterly submerged in a cartographic odyssey: North America: Portrait of a Continent. Drawn entirely with colour pencil and fine-liner pen, this 1500 × 1200 mm (59 × 47 inch) map contains tens of thousands of items of content, from the Arctic to Central America, even the deepest reaches of the ocean. 600 individualised cityscapes populate the map, and the content varies widely. All range of animals, plants, culture, history, industry, symbology, and more are laid out across a flowing terrain. It pulls from a vast sweep of the physical and cultural geography of the continent, and is intended to encourage geographic enthusiasm in a broad audience. Inspired by several years I spent travelling the continent, I’m finally able to reflect on it now it is complete. As prints begin to roll out, there is much to discuss about the origins, technical execution, intents and experiences of drawing North America by hand.
Highlights
Five years ago, I purchased a set of colour pencils and began drawing North America
What began as a passion project ended up taking over my life, as I became utterly submerged in a cartographic odyssey: North America: Portrait of a Continent
I envisioned a piece of map artwork that would capture continental complexity, that would revel in this grand theatre of geography and display it in a vivid and emotive way
Summary
I purchased a set of colour pencils and began drawing North America. I envisioned a piece of map artwork that would capture continental complexity, that would revel in this grand theatre of geography and display it in a vivid and emotive way. Without any idea how long it could take, I stumbled into an odyssey of epic proportions. After four and a half years and thousands of hours, is complete. Navajo sandstone and saguaro cactus, cotton-candy mountains of fall maple. Mayan pyramids rising out of the jungle, eagles soaring across the Rocky Mountains, a sweep of boreal forest half the size of Europe. North America has a magnificent geography and expressing this with cartographic art struck me as an excellent way to tell that story
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