This Australia map illustration is my second map illustration of 2020. I really wanted to create this map a couple years ago but sadly I’ve just never had the time. It’s often a struggle to balance family, work and my own projects and my own personal projects often have to take a back stop. But thankfully, I’ve now entered a slightly quieter period following completion of some projects and one of the most recent being some work for a council in Australia.
This client, Willoughby City Council, asked me to create two maps for them, of which I will no doubt share them here at some point in the future, but it gave me a really good starting base and also extra motivation to finally do a map of Australia. So with about a week of searching for references and then a week of illustrating, here is my Australia map.
Normally when creating a map, I have to think about a colour theme for that country but Australia was super easy to define and it made creating this map much quicker. I usually find area or region maps for a country which I then trace. I’ll also find all the important landmarks such as rivers, mountains, lakes etc and then I’ll mark them on the map before I start researching.
So, for example, for Australia I traced areas like Queensland, New South Wales, Southern Australia, Northern Territory and then Western Australia, and then I researched things like “native animals of Western Australia”. I’ll then choose cute or famous animals for that area and add then to the map. As I point out for all of my maps, the icons I illustrate are not 100% geographically correct. If an area has both a landmark and an animal from the same exact area, the landmark will be as geographically close as possible and the animals have to make slight way. It’s all about compromise.
I might humour you that even though I illustrate maps, my sense of geography is awful. Once I’ve been someone I’ll never forget how to get there or what’s there but my husband is always laughing at my awful sense of direction.
All of my maps are just fun. I love travelling even though it’s not possible during these strange and tragic Covid-19 times, so right now I’m planning lots of maps based on locations that I really want to go to. I think Thailand (my absolute favourite country!) will be next followed by maybe some European countries or more South American countries. Who knows!
If you like my Australia map and you would like to purchase a copy then you can use the links below:
This map is offered in a few different sizes and everything is printed on premium, high quality photo papers. I’ve placed an order for new postcards which will come at a later date. Hope you like!
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