Londonist Drinks

It was lovely to be asked to produce an illustrated map for ‘Londonist Drinks’ the follow up to ‘Londonist Mapped.’ I was commissioned to work on a map for the best pubs near mainline train stations. All the research had already been done so it was my job to add the chosen venues to a map.

First stage was a B&W rough. I drew all the stations and pub signs separately before adding them to the map on Photoshop.

Here are some of the individual images and the finished map.

I also provided some of the smaller images dotted throughout the publication.

Thanks to Rebecca Needes who oversaw the design. The book is now available and would make a great present for anyone who likes London and drinking!

Croydon for Caffeine Addicts

I recently worked with Maddy from 'East Croydon Cool' to produce this black and white map of Croydon for caffeine addicts, highlighting a selection of the finest independent coffee stops in the town. Close-ups of some of the illustrations below.

There is a downloadable version on the East Croydon Cool website at https://eastcroydoncool.co.uk/maps/

My illustration process - Creating an illustrated map

Here is the finished map of Park Hill Park which, if you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me working on earlier in the year. The park is only five minutes walk from the busy East Croydon Station and is a lovely place to spend a sunny lunch hour or have a break from the busy town centre.

Rough stage
I’ve put a series of images below showing how I worked through the process with the Park Hill Friends group who commissioned the piece. First stage was to create a black and white line rough based on the brief. I went round the park with them and took photographs of particular places that they wanted to be included.

B&W Rough

Creating the artwork
Once the rough had been approved, I moved on to the artwork stage. I painted each of the elements separately so that I didn't have to worry about the sizes being too fiddly to draw. I then scanned the images and put them together on Photoshop, placing each image on a separate layer so that I could move them around and make changes.

Additions and corrections

This is the first artwork I sent. You can see there are a few differences from the final one at the top. The newly instated cycle path had to be added, an addition road name plus more information relating to social media contact information.

Bridges of London

Map commissioned by the AA in conjunction with Londonist.

Work in progress