You may recall I was a finalist in last September’s Cooking 4 Kids challenge hosted by the awesome crew over at They Draw & Cook. Well, their sister site, They Draw & Travel (and btw, if you know me, you know I’ve done both of those a fair amount) just closed their submission period for a map contest called YouTopia. I had it in my head that I wanted to participate and was able to squeak in my entry with just a few hours to spare last night.
As per the TDAT site, the challenge was to create “a super pretty illustration focusing on all the special and specific things you love most about your favorite place.” Since I had already explored my little ol’ town in this recent design, I thought I’d go with some elements from that, as they are some of my favorite things about New York City.
I dragged out my sketches along with my trusty tracing paper and started reconfiguring my landmarks to suit the required rectangular format. Funny how sometimes when you redraw something you’ve sketched before, it can look way worse or it can look much better. Luckily my drawing hand was cooperating and giving me exactly what I wanted to see on that paper.
I worked slowly as the pen I was using was taking its merry time to dry. I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to specifically address the ‘super pretty’ aspect of the challenge, but figured I’d just work my way towards that, shifting and adjusting elements as I went along.
After scanning and importing the revised drawing into my computer, I played around a bit and came up with this entry. Yes, I’m going to make you go look at it over on the TDAT site. Feel free to leave a comment if you like! Oh, and be sure to check out the rest of the great entries. Look at them long enough and you’ll want to go on a trip. Or maybe you’ll want to start drawing a map of your own. Or both!
Nine winners will be announced on Tuesday. Exciting stuff!