I love watercolor maps, don’t you? I’ve only done a few of them, but I have resolved to include one in every one of my travel journals going forward, because they’re a great way to see the big picture. They can give you a condensed version of the peak experiences of a tour or vacation in just a glance.
What I find the most challenging when planning a hand-drawn map is deciding how many streets, highways, railroad tracks, and rivers to include. I want to show the layout of the place and note the main places I walked or drove, but I don’t want to include any more than I really need to. There are more interesting things to show.
The other challenge lies in translating a scene like this…
into a tiny little 1-1/4″ sketch like this.
Or whittling down something incredibly complex…
into a few simple lines.
But I’m learning that even a greatly simplified version of the real thing is enough to make a building recognizable. It can still bring back memories of my time there.
This particular map is an illustration of some of the places my friend Pat and I walked during the days before my Bruges workshop started.
Our home base was the Grand Hotel Casselbergh, which is conveniently located just steps away from some of the prettiest spots in Bruges, like The Burg, Market Square (both shown above), the old fish market, and Astrid Park, where we were lucky enough to see the last of the tulips blooming.
A little farther afield, we visited the Church of Our Lady and Saint Salvatore Kathedral, both immense, ornate structures which would be impossible for me to draw realistically. But drawing them at 1/1,000,000th scale was a breeze!
Minnewater Park was an oasis in the middle of the city, with a lovely lake, and winding trails curving through acres of hardwood trees. Old stone and brick buildings were reflected in the placid waters of the lake, and swans and geese glided by with their babies in tow.
The Beguinage is a sprawling religious compound surrounding a grassy meadow dotted with tall, sinuous trees, but, for my map, a single tree and building were enough to symbolize the real thing.
To finish off the map design, I included a scroll with the words “Exploring Bruges” on it, and a pair of nesting swans. Swans are such a big part of the Bruges experience, so I’m glad I found a spot for them on the map.
The final touch was adding a border around the outside edge of the map circle. I spent a long time searching for border design ideas on Pinterest, and, in the end, decided that there was so much going on inside the circle that a fairly simple border would best complement it.
There was so much more I could have included, but working on such a small scale forced me to be selective, and I was able to illustrate the high points of our first few days in the city in a fun and colorful way.
6 Comments
I love this Leslie!👏👏👏👏
Thanks, Beverlee!
So wonderfully done!
Thank you so much! I had fun doing it.
Lovely, thoughtful, and so clever!
Thank you, Franny. Hope you’re doing well.