It’s Shark Week!
As a resident of the Jersey Shore and an ardent mapmaker, it is almost inevitable that I'd be interested in its history. So it was especially intriguing for me when, a few years ago, a local acquaintance started talking up the Shark History of the area. Several excellent books were recommended, "12 Days of Terror" and "Close to Shore", which describe the singular Shark Attack events of the Summer of 1916. It was so engrossing, almost too hard to fathom, that I was inspired to make
Why the Chesapeake?
Why bother to map the entire Chesapeake Bay, you may ask? The answer is a bit like the old cliché joke, "because it's there". This enormous inland body of water, spanning substantial parts of Maryland and Virginia, has so many iconic connections to East Coast lives as well as the United States' history, that it begs the question. As my interest in Coastal Art Maps specifically focuses on interesting situations where land and water meet, depiction of this great sand-bottomed sea presented nearly limitless opportunities
Who Do I Map? Thoughts on the Latest Group and the Larger Whole
We are proud to announce the release of the second of three collections of the entire Chesapeake Bay and surrounding area, depicting the iconic inland sea which spans some 150 miles north-to-south, in Maryland and Virginia. This group completes the Maryland part and the final group, due out later this year, will encompass the entire Virginia portion. It is a big undertaking but really provides a comprehensive look at the most significant body of water on the east coast of the US. Studying this complex,
Vision of Possible Restoration – The Happy Days Gunning Shack
The Happy Days Gunning Shack
Thoughts on the Season to Come
As I sit here on the eve of the first day of Spring, watching the snow fall, I’m reflecting on the choice of this year’s maps. As the dregs of winter provide some of my most productive periods of sustained work, two new maps are rounding into finished form. Similar to those of the Florida Keys, these maps reflect suggestions/requests from some of my correspondents and also respond to some visceral “aha” moment in my own head. Still a bit of self-reflection on why Nantucket
To Market, to Market
To Market, to Market—So a given map is “finished”. Now what? Photograph it. Create a digital record file. Copyright it. Decide the final production sizes. Choose materials such as art paper, canvas or other. Sample color separations, shades and transparencies, UV protected inks and degrees of finishing. Finally, print finished samples for presenting and marketing and adding to the website, along with promoting new entries to make the best effort at reaching and informing the largest possible audience. And, do I really know who these
Finishing Touches
Once things are drawn and painted, what remains to finish up the maps is the words and symbols that complete peoples’ expectations. The labels, graphics and type fonts that help viewers orient themselves and understand the areas depicted are critical to engaging them. The names of familiar towns, notable landmarks or bodies of water, etc. all serve to connect with and draw someone in. How elaborate or decorative they should be depends partly on the style of the overall images but also on establishing a
Watercolor Washes
Why color them at all? The maps could remain black-and-white and they are starkly dramatic at that stage. But for reasons of clarity, pop and broad general appeal, color has been part of map making since earliest times. Colors provide an opportunity for subtlety, feature enhancement and contrast that are difficult to achieve with the textures of B&W alone. And it is a proven fact that people are more readily drawn to colored things than to the more austere B&W. Years ago while traveling in