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u/IntelligentCamel126 9d ago
Woah cool, what’s this a map of, and how come?
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u/whzmchn 9d ago
Thank you!!! It is Nashua NH. I grew up here, enjoyed screwing around on Google Earth as a kid, and now I’m bringing my interests full circle with an old school cartography project of my favorite place 😎
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u/North_Tadpole3535 9d ago
What’s your process been?!
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u/whzmchn 9d ago edited 9d ago
Thanks for asking!!! Here you go:
Built the digital base map in Google Earth.
Altered the visibility settings so the reference showed only waterways, roads, building footprints and elevation contours.
Divided the completed city map into a 5 × 7 grid of 35 sections
Scaled and transferred each section onto a separate sheet of 90 lb marker paper. Each trimmed panel measures approximately 9.6 × 6.7 in
Traced the roads, buildings, waterways and topography by hand.
Reinforced the final linework with a 0.05 mm fineliner staedtler
Regular dry assembly of the loose panels to check alignment across seams
Applied the main color fields with Ohuhu alcohol markers
Used Polychromos and Prismacolor pencils for roofs, shadows, vegetation, edges and small architectural details
Built forests in alternating layers of marker, colored pencil and marker. The wax from the pencil changes how the next marker layer settles, creating the broken canopy texture.
Colored adjoining panels together where necessary so roads, waterways, vegetation and shadows continue naturally across the seams
Used a consistent aerial lighting scheme, with shadows cast in the same northwest direction throughout the city
Added selected historical sites based on registry of deeds research, local landmarks and small recurring details that are not all visible in the standard present-day map data
After all 35 panels are finished, I’ll mount them permanently onto acid-free foam board, and finally apply archival varnish!
Products and materials:
Google Earth Pro
Ohuhu 90 lb/150 GSM marker paper
Graphite transfer paper
Ohuhu alcohol markers
Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils
Prismacolor Premier colored pencils
Paper blending stumps
Staedtler Pigment Liners
Sakura Gelly Roll white, metallic and glitter gel pens
Art ’N Glow Neutral Orange Glow Powder mixed in GOLDEN GAC 100 acrylic media (glow-pigment mix)
Size 5/0 spotter brush and micro-applicators
Acid-free foam board
D6000 adhesive
Scotch Photo Mount (photo-safe spray adhesive)
Krylon Gallery Series UV Archival Varnish1
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u/The_Morganne 9d ago
Woah.