London love

An appropriate post for Valentine's Day, as it's about love: in London, and for a husband.

A week or two ago, a friend asked if I'd be willing to do a commission for her. It's coming up for her 1st wedding anniversary, which traditionally is "paper", and she wondered if I'd be able to do a map for her to give to her husband, based around places in London special to them. It would involve stylised drawings of important locations centred on a specific area of London, and for the look and method, I was given free reign. It was a bit intimidating - I've not really done a streetmap style map before (I've mainly done whole countries rather than areas), and you always have that lurking worry that what you do won't meet their expectations, when you're doing something new, and specific for an individual. It's made even worse when it's something being done for a friend and you really don't want to let them down! I'd also not filled such a large area of paper with filigree before, and my hands need regular breaks when doing the filigree to stop them from hurting, so I couldn't just do it all in one sitting, and it'd need to be fitted in around everything else in my life.

So, ignoring my worries, I got on with it as fast as possible, as it was needed reasonably soon. I decided to use the main streets of the area as divisions to split the map up, as otherwise it could be an overwhelming mass of doodles. There was also a canal involved, so I had to decide how to differentiate the different areas. I decided on stippling for the roadways, and bubbles (appropriately enough) for the canal.

Basic map with roads and canal

Then I had to figure out how to draw, in very small form, the buildings my friend had given me the information on. This took a bit of research (she very helpfully gave me the links and info though!), and some doodling and asking people if they could recognise what they saw. On such a small scale, it can be hard to include the detail that makes things recognisable, so they inevitably become stylised and sometimes, to show things that are recognisable you have to go slightly away from the actual reality. This is what I had to do for St Pancras station, as I had the hotel and the train station to show, but couldn't really duplicate the drawing in different locations. Then I had to make sure I was placing them correctly on the map, which involved a couple of "whoops, not quite there moments (it's tricky when you're not familiar with an area)...

Camden Town Hall added

Then my sketches were replicated on the map in pencil, drawn over when I was happy with them, and the pencil underdrawing removed:

Main drawings added

After the addition of some relevant text on a couple of the roads, I began filling in the filigree, dots, and bubbles.

First filigree, road text and road stipples

More filigree, and canal bubbles completed

Corner filling up

Roads without stippling yet

Almost there!

Just the roads to finish...

And, after 10 hours of work , it was finished! Forgive me if I indulge myself with too many photos here, but I'm quite proud of this, I think it's ended up as a really interesting looking drawing from a distance, that gets even more interesting as you get closer and realise the detail it's made up of. I hope it's well received on the anniversary!

The finished map

Roads

Roads

Roads, canal and buildings