Visual Essay : Change Someone's Day Through Illustration Workshop
After seeing a poster for 'Whistle Punks Urban Axe Throwing' when walking around Bristol City Centre, it made me wonder how many other activities there are around Bristol that are unique like that.
I think that I'd like to create something for tourists that might only go to the very centre of Bristol, so that they can maybe plan some things that they wouldn't usually see or think of to do. I think its a good way of bringing people and friends together as covid restrictions are starting to lift more. Also if I can promote smaller businesses that could help them post pandemic I think that that would be important.
I looked into various websites that had unique things to do in Bristol and these are a few that I found:
- You can sleep in a steel caravan on a rooftop in St Nicholas' Market
- There is a pizza vending machine in Bedminster
- You can go paddle boarding on the Harbourside
- Bungee jumping is available from a crane towards the Harbourside
- There are multiple board game cafe's / bars around Bristol
- A cat bar and café and also pop up dog cafe's around Bristol
Illustrated Maps
Nate Padavick
https://www.natepadavick.com/illustrated-map-maker
Nate Padavick is a map illustrator that creates decorative maps for nature trails, cities, campuses and tourism. I was surprised by his range of styles in his maps and I think my favourite ones are 'Five Squares and One Triangle' because of its disconnect from a traditional map and simplifying it into just straight lines and the features of his neighbourhood. I also like 'Appellation Trail' for the sheer amount of information and illustrations on one piece but keeping the work to one colour palette really brings the piece together so the crowdedness isn't too much.
Caroline Harper
I came across Caroline Harpers work and instantly really liked the dense look to her map illustrations. It feels like the city drawings are illustrating how the place would feel, crowded but still set out and organised beautifully and artfully. Her use of negative space is good because it really brings out each building and tree individually whereas if it were on a white background I think the elements would blur together. I do find her style to also be unique as it looks much more old fashioned which is unusual in illustrating maps.
Tom Froese
I was inspired by this work of Tom Forese's to think about looking at a more specific part of a place, e.g. the food of a city, where you can seek out music in the city. I do think that his work focuses a lot more on the atmosphere and emotion of the place rather than the physicality's which was an interesting take on it. I think this gives the viewer a taste of the stories within the place with his characterful and representative illustrations rather than just drawing building after building.
This piece was made as a result from Froese's workshop on illustrated maps by Kirsten McKellogg and portrays the journey of the film 'Stolen Kisses'. I did like the idea of it being not just a map of Paris but it has an extra story and narrative running through it.
A lot of illustrated maps have a similar look or layout so I wanted to think about other ways in which a city or place could be represented.
I created a questionnaire because I wanted to find out more about Bristol and also what people would want to do in a trip here. Also if I ask people that know Bristol better like locals, they may be able to give me information on more places that I can't find through internet research.
I took a walk around Bristol to sketch some of the places that I researched. I wanted to focus on dining experiences around Bristol because I think it'd be a good way to bring people together as lockdown restrictions are starting to be lifted. I also think that it would promote smaller or independent businesses which have suffered from not being open during the lockdowns.
Looking at 'Bag O Nails', I sketched out some of the main components of the pub and combined them to make icons which I could use on my map. I think that I want to be able to show off what might draw someone to a certain place or what they specialise in. This case being the cats and serving beer / ale.
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