Hello, and welcome back to another blog post! This week I finally started my map. Originally, I had planned to follow the class on SkillShare, but in the end, I decided to kind of go off on my own. I did this because I wanted to do my map a certain way, and I thought it would be more beneficial to do it on my own. I will still be taking a few tips and tricks from the class, but I won't be watching each video. However, I will still be using the same idea because I actually really like the idea. Anyway, I will be telling you about my process and why I decided to use this particular process. So let's get started. So, my main inspiration for my map was the map of North America drawn by Anton Thomas. If you don't remember, this is a map that uses a lot of color, and with each important city, Thomas draws a skyline showing the importance of each one. Also, it features animals found in the area and what the environment looks like. I will be using the idea of drawing sort of a "skyline" for each important place I will be highlighting. My map does not feature particular cities, but it includes areas of importance, which I will be using in the place of a city. Now, I will be sharing the steps I took in making my map. I am not done with the map yet, so next week, I will be showing the finished product along with the rest of the process. 1. Grid I decided that if I wanted to make my map as accurate as possible, I should use Google Earth to my advantage. I used this by taking a screenshot of my old house on my computer. Then, I put the image in Google Drawing and put a grid on it. Furthermore, the paper I am using is 9 inches x 12 inches, so the grid was 9x12. I used the grid to make the drawing of the landscapes and specific things easier. Next, I drew a 9x12 grid on my paper. After this, I was ready for my next step. 2. Driveway, Sidewalks, and Water For my next step, I drew all of the basic borders of my map. This includes the driveway, sidewalks, and water. This is the main part where I am using the grid in order to get perfect precision. Initially, I drew the driveway. I started with this because it is the biggest and I would be able to draw my other items in relation to it. My driveway was kind of long and weird, so this part took quite some time. But, after my hard work, I had a beautiful driveway. I used the grid by drawing each segment of the driveway on each grid onto the correlating grid on the paper. Afterward, I drew the sidewalk that runs in front of the house. I used the same process to add this to my map. Lastly, I drew the creek that runs through the front of the house. This did not show up on the image because it is covered by the lush forest, so I had to guesstimate using my memory alone. It isn't perfect, but I think it is pretty accurate. Overall, I think I did a good job creating this aspect of my map. 3. "Skylines" Next, I began to draw the "skylines". I am not finished with these because I wasn't sure how many or which ones I wanted to do, so the rest of them will be featured with the final product. However, I still got some good work done on these. The drawings were purely from my memory, so they probably aren't perfect. But, I think I did a pretty good job considering that. For these "skylines" I chose some of my favorite reoccurring things to do from when I was younger. Next, I drew how they looked to me. This involved drawing them so that they were parallel to the bottom and top of the paper, unlike the rest of the map which is slightly slanted. I did this because I thought that it looked more appealing that way. After drawing them, I wrote the name of the place according to young me. Thus, the names are a little wacky sometimes. For example, "chalk city" and "Australia" are among the names of the places. I also couldn't think of the name I wanted to use for some of them, so I added a fill-in name instead. As of right now, I have drawn 6 locations, but as I said earlier, I hope to add on later. 4. Detail As my last step for this week, I added more detail to the map. Basically, this was just filling in most of the holes of the map to make it seem more real. Moreover, I added things such as lawns, stone borders, patios, trails, and more. There is still tons of detail that needs to be added, but it still looks way better with the amount I have added so far. I hope to add detail until it seems like I am looking at a picture of my childhood. This might be a little bit difficult considering I have no way of actually going to see it, but that's the fun in it! I know my map will not be as accurate for that reason because most map makers spend a long time surveying the land they are mapping, but currently, I think this is going to be fine. That is all that I did this week, and there is still so much to be done. When you see the final product, there will be much more detail added. Next week, I am planning to add more skylines, add detail, make it more clean and precise and color, so stay tuned for that. I hope you enjoyed this week's blog, and I can't wait to show you the final product!
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