Backgrounds and Layers

Once I’ve been able to settle on correct and accurate data, which often includes personally walking the sites to verify certain details, it’s time to actually begin drawing the backgrounds of the main elements.  This very tactile experience really begins to put me in contact with the area I’m working on in a way that is personal and somewhat transforming.  As I draw each individual line and point, bump and node, a connection to the forms develops which is both special and difficult to describe.   And like any artwork, as the piece grows and changes, it takes on a life of its own.  Every map has been different and each one has its own unique features and problems that insure no two are alike.  These initial backgrounds form the base layers onto which all subsequent information is mapped, so their importance can’t be over stressed.  These layers, whether they represent roads or vegetation or hillsides, all take their cues from the style of the first outlines.  Even the lettering and other graphics are strongly influenced by the types of line weights, thicknesses and accents that go into making the primary shapes.  The traditional use of these classic implements, pen-and-ink and watercolor washes on paper, informs the whole process with a compositional quality which I believe most people are able to sense in a very real way.  The aspect of doing things “the old-fashioned way” really still resonates for many individuals and they feel connected to the artwork in a way that is very different than what they get from more modern, mechanically produced things.  These maps pull for a time when things were still a little simpler than they are now.