Saturday, December 22, 2007

Holiday project time: create an artful map as a antidote to the world of mass market goods


Bradley's France
Originally uploaded by trudeau
As a break from the commonplace, I encourage parents and students to pursue a quick holiday craft assignment called the Artful Map. It makes a good hand-made gift, I believe.

1. Buy an art mat or 2 from Hobby Lobby, Michael's or Walmart. The mat (also matte) acts as a frame and reminds you of the power of a considered presentation. In mats you'll find the 5X7 travels easily and takes little display space. The 8X10 offers more room for calligraphy and illustrations. Don't start the illustration until you can measure the interior space of the mat - they vary.

2. Choose a location to illustrate that makes you dreamy.

3. Experiment with watercolor for the large fields of color. There's something about water media that evokes romance and a by-gone era. Sometimes colored pencils are easier to use. You can easily shade the fields and give weight to the borders with the map pencils.

4. Consider putting the title inside a box in the shape of a scroll. Practice your calligraphy. Lay out the print in light pencil before inking it.

5. Add a compass rose.

6. Add an interior border - not on the mat, but on the map sheet - composed of rectangles filled with alternating colors.

7. More ideas will be inspired by perusing books that may contain old maps. There are a marvelous number of web sites (a Google image search, for instance) with examples.

8. if it comes out smartly and has strong color and contrast, you might consider scanning it or putting it upon a copier. The resulting copies might be swell. Depends on the artist and the project.


Now to make one of my own. This year my target will be the Atlantic side of Massachusetts, state of my birth. If you make an artful map, snap a photo and email it to me, s'il vous plait.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

... As a antidote to the world of mass market goods?

Then why would we buy the supplies at Hobby Lobby, Michael's or Walmart?