One of my newest projects and creative obsessions has been creating illustrated/inky maps. Inspired after watching a Skillshare class taught by Illustrator and Designer, Tom Froese, I decided to tackle Paris. But instead of the city through my eyes, through the adventures of Antoine Doinel in Stolen Kisses. Landmarks include the hotel where Antoine is hired (and fired) after being discharged from the army, the cafe where Antoine is encouraged to come work for the Blady Agency, and the park bench Antoine and Christine sit on at the end of the film.
Even before sketching the items, the map required a great deal of research (I am very indebted to Movie Tourist for identifying the exact locations of these landmarks). The placement and scale may not be one hundred percent exact but I tried to keep as much accurate as possible.
For all the landmarks I first sketched them out in pencil, then with the aid of a lightbox traced over them with black ink, then scanned them into Photoshop. The textured bits were created by mixing calligraphy ink with a little water and painted with various brushes.
For all the handwritten elements (landmark names, street names and the map name/sign), I scanned the originals into Photoshop without tracing over in ink beforehand. I had tried to many times but just couldn't get them to look as nice or fluid as the originals. I just made sure to adjust the contrast in the levels so the texture didn't get washed out or lost when digitizing.
Choosing the background and label colors was one of the most difficult parts (I must have gone through 500 combinations). Ultimately I went with this lilac shade because it felt romantic and vibrant without being overly feminine. Plus, I really love how much it highlights the inkiness in the texture.
It was a tremendous amount of work and time spent, but I plan to continue making more. I've already started a second (and more ambitious) map!
