More Cartoon Maps

illustrations copyright J.Pittman 2008

I just finished another waterpark cartoon map. I probably have an advantage in this genre in that my degree is in architecture. So, when clients supply reference for a project, I have experience in interpreting the architect's plans into 3D. Of course, I'm doing it in exaggerated fashion to make a fun presentation.

There is an incredible amount of detail that goes into these projects. Many cartoonists are accustomed to working in minimalist styles. It takes a special patience to do this type of work.

When clients furnish photos of an existing park for reference, it's funny how sometimes they will send me the exact opposite side of a view from what I'm drawing. I guess since they are so familiar with their park, they think the most common view from the sidewalk is what I need to work from. But if I have to draw the south side of a building and they've given me the north side, I can't just make up what the other side looks like! Same with rooftops. Lots of times I'm furnished with a pedestrian view of a building that doesn't show the roof. And I'm typically drawing a bird's eye view with these maps. So I have no idea what to indicate for the rooftop!

Thankfully, Google Earth is making my work easier these days with updated aerial photos of most places in the world. I can check out most of these places and, if the resolution is high enough, see a lot of the details the clients may not have on hand.

Cartoon Maps

I do a lot of cartoon maps. As a child, I remember sitting in my pediatrician's waiting room seeing a huge cartoon map of Mother Goose Land on the wall. For a kid, it was an adventure to see how many nursery rhymes you could identify from the scenarios portrayed across the landscape.

Even today, I try to summon up that excitement when doing cartoon map projects for my clients, adding little mini dramas or fantasy elements to make them fun. The blog size can't do justice to the huge size of these maps, but here a few detail areas pulled out from the overall map above.







I'm getting requests these days from all over the world. One of the great things about the internet is how it has made the world your marketplace. I'm very grateful to be able to share with the world this type of fantasy and fun that I grew up with. To view this map in larger size on my website, as well as others, go to http://www.jptoonist.com/portfolio/MC.htm