Dundarave. From left to right. Before and After As we near the time for the Bushmills orientation panel to go to the printers, I've found myself going over the map one final time and making a few last minute edits. With the many changes that took place over much of the past year, i found myself working with what i would call a "template" of the map of the village and what i mean by template i will explain here. While the map was hand drawn, and for the most part already complete, some of it still requires/required a clean up session as the group asked for new additional buildings and so on over the course of the creation of the map...and of course some of the edits were my own. If you will, imagine a new building being built in town. After it is built, scaffolding, cement covered wheel barrows and debris of all kinds need to be cleaned up before that mayor goes and cuts the ribbon and releases that "great work of architectural art" to the public.
From left to right. Before and After. As you can see i've added a slight bit of shading to the
buildings just to see how it looked.
When it comes to illustration/inks/colours, the same thing has to happen when placing new additions into the "town", except we're dealing with a lot of "cut and paste" cleanups, for example colors not matching up, or sidewalks not lining up correctly after they have been pasted in (for time saving purposes a few pieces of drawn road have been used over again, mainly on the road leading to Dunluce Castle, and the road leading to the Benvarden Gardens which is not featured on the physical map) At this point it's mainly touch-ups, straightening out roads and buildings and things of that nature.
As you can see in the before and after pictures, I've also toyed with the idea of shading the roofs of the houses. It was something i had considered early on and when Winston Boyce also mentioned it as a possible addition at one of the meetings last year, it was something that i would keep in mind upon the final revision of the map and all of the heritage image placements (separate images like the recently added Dunluce Parish shown below)
As you can see in the before and after pictures, I've also toyed with the idea of shading the roofs of the houses. It was something i had considered early on and when Winston Boyce also mentioned it as a possible addition at one of the meetings last year, it was something that i would keep in mind upon the final revision of the map and all of the heritage image placements (separate images like the recently added Dunluce Parish shown below)
Getting back to the shading of the roofs though, i am still undecided if it takes away from the simplicity of the town map. At the same time it gives it a three dimensional look so i may keep it.
I believe there is enough in the orientation panel for the sightseer to make the most out of their time in Bushmills and look forward to getting it all put in place.
I believe there is enough in the orientation panel for the sightseer to make the most out of their time in Bushmills and look forward to getting it all put in place.
The Roll n Ruler at work The new addition to the art table, the Roll n Ruler has been coming in handy as far as straightening the roads on the map. The ruler has actually been available since the 90's but it's not something you're apt to find in the shops. I ordered it online from the U.S and it arrived within the week.
While I'm at it, a word on the non-repro blue mechanical pencil leads.
While I'm at it, a word on the non-repro blue mechanical pencil leads.
Pilot Color Eno Neox Mechanical Pencil Lead - 0.7 mm During the late Summer early Fall of 2013 i plotted out the entire mainstreet of Bushmills along with the Distillery and etc with the Pilot Color Eno Neox Mechanical - 0.7 mm pencil leads and the results were outstanding. It does exactly what it's supposed to, with the blue pencils showing zero in the way of blemishes on scanning the work in as lineart. In other words, all the initial planning sketches did not show up when scanning in the inked line work.
The Roll n Ruler at work along with the darker blue hues of the Pentel blue leads The work for Sheila's sweet shop sign however used up the last of those non-repro leads so i gave the Pentel 0.7mm leads a try (i had a packet merely to try it eventually). Now, those leads are of a dark blue hue...in fact they were darker than i had initially thought when purchasing online (hey, good luck trying to find such leads in your local UK artstore.) Still, i wanted to sketch out a few updates to the Bushmills map before handing it to the printers
Still trying to figure out if they are "supposed" to be non-repro blue
The problem however, is that these Pentel blue leads basically have the same effect as a graphite pencil lead has when scanning your lineart...they show up with all the scratchy rough preliminary sketchiness that you were hoping would stay hidden, which makes me wonder....what exactly are those Pental blue leads for? Perhaps my scan setting needs to be adjusted? In any case, i had my scan settings how i wanted them, and the Pilot blues work great so will have to revert back to those eventually (ordered a whole batch of those leads from the U.S and saved 25 pounds in the process). In the meantime I've done the roughs on one set of pages, and inked them over on another with the hand made lightbox. It gets the same result really but a little extra work.
Before and After (Left to Right) The map nears completion and I'm sure I'm touching up little areas that most people wouldn't even notice, but to me, i have to be reasonably happy and proud of the work before setting it out for my local town to see, never mind the tourists that visit our wee town every year.
Hand drawing a map takes time, and you can probably see this from the videos i've posted last Summer when illustrating the initial sketches. Originally i planned on bringing about a sort of "general idea" of the town, which explains the oft crooked roads in the original (although no one has actually mentioned those) but i wanted to tidy it up to the best of my ability and that's where i'm at at the moment. All being well it should be done by the beginning of the week.
Hand drawing a map takes time, and you can probably see this from the videos i've posted last Summer when illustrating the initial sketches. Originally i planned on bringing about a sort of "general idea" of the town, which explains the oft crooked roads in the original (although no one has actually mentioned those) but i wanted to tidy it up to the best of my ability and that's where i'm at at the moment. All being well it should be done by the beginning of the week.
RSS Feed
