Queens Park, Kensal Green and Kilburn are finally on the map now an artist has hand drawn the area complete with local landmarks.
Caroline Harper, an art director for film and television, has been drawing maps of London for four years and has had her first paid commission from friends who wanted her to ink the area of north London where they live.
Capturing different inner city villages such as Hampstead and Highgate and the occasional English town, her work is popular and is known to sell out.
She said: “The trickiest thing was how compact that part of northwest London is and I live in an area in south east London that if you do a map of Herne Hill, Brixton and Dulwich, they are quite separated. Whereas with this, Kilburn, West Hampstead, Queens Park, Brondesbury, Kensal Green, Kensal rise, they are all so close to each other and they’ve all got different characters.”
In order to fit all the landmarks in, she has had to be really selective adding: “I put on all the things you’d expect like, St Augustine’s Church, for example. I’ll go round the streets on foot or on my computer, so every single house, you might not recognise it, will be relevant to that road.
“I love it when I go to an area and see lovely two storey houses, if you can fit rows and rows of those on, that is!”
The 42-year-old started inking areas after seeing a Magnificent Map exhibition at the British Library four years ago and was soon drawing maps for friends in between racing around the country with her job.
She uses technical drawing pens, but also brushes, ink, and BiC pens as well ‘for different qualities of line’.
She said: “To draw I always use black and white, there’s so much detail and texture that the idea of using colour at the moment would do my brain in I think.”
Even with the success of her map drawings, she has no plans to give up her directing work: “The ideal thing would be to do both my jobs for half a year. November to March I’ll draw then put my boots on in April to go filming, which is a delight in the summer.”
Available from carolineharper.com for £85. (£90 inc P&P)
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