Mapping Places - Process
Drawn Scale 1 - Wateriness
Iteration Series 1: Experimenting
My first iterations were a way for me to test out different materials and hatches in order to map out the waterways of Sydney. These iterations are my attempts to map the water as 'watery' on paper.
Iteration 1 - Used charcoal and a 3B pencil for this iteration. The charcoal I used for the larger bodies of water and blended out the charcoal with my finger. I used the 3B pencil to draw out the smaller waterways. I found the charcoal very effective in mapping wateriness of this layer and plan to continue with this drawing tool in further experiments to map this wateriness. What can be improved is the mapping of the smaller river systems as they do not seem cohesive with the rest of the iteration
Iteration 2 - For this experiment I used a 0.4mm pen to dot the waterways of Sydney. From a distance this technique seems to show the clear difference in the sizes of the waterways, from the larger bodies of water to the smaller areas. However, for the next experiments I hope to somehow show the depth or the changing tides of the river system so that this layer can look more watery. This technique is very time-consuming
Iteration 3 - Tried cross-hatching with a 0.2mm pen. When it came to the main body of water I find that the hatching effectively shows a lack of similarity in the waterway, which for my purposes is good as it shows how the water is ever-changing and not constant in its depth. The smaller waterways were just lined and I find effective in showing the differences. For the next iteration, I hope to show the direction of the water
Iteration 4 - For this iteration I used a 3B, 2B and HB pencil to experiment with showing the different depths of the water. For the rivers I used a 3B pencil and experimented with a different pencil weight and a HB pencil for the creeks so that I could effectively map the different types of waterways in Sydney. For the larger bodies of water I used a HB pencil in the centre and 3B on the exterior to show the changing depths of the water. I used the 2B pencil to blend the pencil together and show how there is no clear moment of change in water. I tried to map the unpredictability of water in a sense. The different depths of water are clear with the pencil but I feel that this technique lacks 'wateriness'
Iteration Series 2: Developing
For these next iterations I found aspects of each of my experiments that I liked and attempted to develop and improve these iterations through further experimentation
Iterations - Charcoal
Iteration 1 - For this iteration I used my fingers to blend the edges of the charcoal. I found that this technique allowed for a cohesiveness between the two different types of bodies of water. I do find that there is too much white space in the picture and the water is not dominating enough
Iteration 2 - For this iteration I decided to experiment with the shading further and made up for the white space by instead using this white space to differentiate between the creeks and rivers. However this method is very messy and the rivers look like the shading of the creeks.
Iteration 3 - To continue with the blending I made the rivers and the creeks both use the white space but now the river is white and the land so there is a lack of differentiation between the two. I do like how the river system has a white centre and how it stands out.
Iteration 4 - To continue with the white centre idea and fix the lack of differentiation between the land and water I used the charcoal on the land. I then blended with my fingertips but instead of going outwards, I blended inwards so that I could show a fluid relationship with the land but also a clear differentiation. For further iterations I hope to make this neater and clearer as it is currently messy.
Iterations - Dotting
Iteration 1 - To improve the dotting, I added another level of depth by using different pen weights, 0.6mm, 0.4mm and 0.1mm. I used 0.4 for the river systems, 0.1 for creeks and 0.6mm to add depth in the larger bodies of water. I really like how the larger area looks with this dotting and hope to continue with this throughout my series. I do like the different line weights in the creeks and rivers, however I feel that they are lacking depth and need improvement.
Iteration 2 - This time, I dotted an outline of 0.1mm around the creeks to add an element of white space and depth. This also still clearly shows the difference between the creeks and the rivers. However, this is quite faint and needs to be clearer in further iterations. I do like the 0.1mm dotted border around the rivers.
Iteration 3 - For the creeks I used a 0.4mm pen to outline but then continued with a 0.1mm, on the creeks as well as the larger bodies of water to create a cohesiveness within the iteration but also make the creeks more obvious in the drawing. For improvement, I believe that the larger bodies of water need further differentiation.
Iteration 4 - For this iteration, it is largely similar to the last but I instead used the 0.1mm pen again for the rivers to create another 'border' around. This time the dots were spread further apart in order to try and display this interconnected relationship with the land, where the water can be absorbed by soil and vegetation on the edges of the river/creek bank. In further iterations I hope to include this in the creeks as well.
Iterations - Hatching
Iteration 1 - In this iteration in order to limit the hatching and make it less messy I only cross-hatched on the edges of river system. I do like how this turned out, however, this is only clear on the main body of water. The hatching doesn't clearly show the direction or movement of water and I hope to develop on this in further iterations.
Iterations - Pencil Shading
Iteration 1 - To improve on the lack of wateriness in the experimentation, I included some dots on the edges of the river or where there is a crossing/meeting of creeks. I find that this is effective in showing how water can merge with the land at times but find that the dots don't add anything of meaning to the drawing and just confuse the picture.
Iteration Series 3: Refining
Iteration 1 - For this iteration I continued with the 0.1mm exterior dotting along the creeks as well. I still like the dotting but it has now made the drawing look messy and reading the map has become confusing. In further iterations, this will need to be developed upon.
Iteration 2 - To fix the dotting I spread the 0.1mm exterior dots further apart which has seemed to fix the issue of the image becoming confusing. I also experimented with a 0.2mm pen weight in the main body of water in order to allow there to be a more gradual and a less harsh transition between the 0.6mm pen and 0.1mm pen. However, I prefer without the use of the 0.2mm pen.
Annotations
Drawn Scale 1: Layering
Base map research
Mapping
Iteration 1 - For the salinity layer, I decided to use different line weights to show the different percentage changes throughout the river system. For this I used a horizontal straight line hatching. However, using the dots and the lines has made reading the map confusing and both overpower each other, causing them to blend together. In further iterations I need to find a solution to this problem and come up with a way where neither complete with each other. Further, continuing with the idea of the dots representing fluidity with the land, I decided to map where there is concrete preventing the water from 'merging' with the land. Where this happens I do not dot with the 0.1mm pen. I really like this idea and hope to stick with this in further iterations. The mangrove layer I shaded with charcoal, however due to the other two layers competing the mangrove layer is also not obvious.
Iteration 2 - In this iteration I only focused on fixing the issue of the salinity layer and original watery layer. To do this, I used a 3B, 2B and HB pencil in order to map out the salinity layer. Once in photoshop I then coloured this layer and brought down the opacity. In doing this, I believe that I have successfully found a method where the watery layer and salinity layer do not compete with each other
Iteration 3 - I lightened the background colour and added a secondary colour in photoshop but it still isn't clear enough.
Iteration 4 - In this iteration, I lightly hatched the mangroves on illustrator using the pen tool with a 0.1mm thickness, however, I feel that the line colour is not dark enough and blends in with the watery layer. In the final iteration I plan to make this colour black and bring down the opacity so that it is not too dark.
Annotations
Drawn Scale 2
Iteration Series 1: Developing
Iteration 1 - I experimented with charcoal and shaded with my fingertips. I outlined the outer layer and shaded inwards so that there would be this aspect of depths within the river. I really like how the charcoal has been used here, however, the edges seem messy and lack an aspect of carefulness.
Iteration 2 - This experiment is similar to many of my scale 1 drawings, transferring this technique to the larger scale was easy and I didn't come up with any issues. This scale has allowed me to go into further detail with my dotting and allow for more accuracy. In further experiments I am going to add the other details that I had in scale 1.
Iteration 3 - I used a 0.4mm pen in trace around the river system. I also drew a second line around to show a concrete outer layer bordering the river system. The inside I also lined. I like how this turned out but it can be improved by adding other line weights in order to add more depth to this technique.
Iteration 4 - I experimented with watercolour at a larger scale to show the changing depths of the parramatta river. This technique is effective but the watercolour should be layered rather than being a base layer for scale 2
Iteration Series 2: Refining
Iteration - Dotting
Iteration 1 - I added 0.1mm dots around the river which I like and on the next iteration I want to further this technique by dotting the perimeter of the river as well.
Iteration 2 - I continued with the dotting but I also added a line border with a 0.1mm pen to indicate where there is concrete along the river. I like how this looks and will be using this for the base map when I begin layering.
Iteration - Line work
Iteration 1 - I used a 0.6mm pen for the outer line which has allowed for the actual river edge to stand out more. I like how this turned out. To improve, I feel the lines on the inside should also have different line weights.
Iteration 2 - I used 0.6mm, 0.4mm, 0.35mm, 0.2mm and a 0.1mm pen in order to add different line weights to the hatching in the interior of the river. While doing this I decided to try and map the salinity percentage of Parramatta river. I really like how this turned out and after this iteration decided that salinity should be one of the layers for my final maps. To improve on this the outer 0.1mm line should be removed so that the map is less confusing.
Annotations
Iteration Series 3: Layering
Base maps research
Mappings
Iteration 1 - Similar to scale 1 when I layered the lined salinity layer on the dotting, the two different hatches merged together and the map became confusing which is something which will need to be developed in further iterations.
Iteration 2 - In photoshop, in an attempt to fix this, in photoshop I coloured the dotting layer, however, this still proved to be a problem and the layers still merged. I have decided that in order to fix this I will need to find an alternate way without the use of lines.
Iteration 3 - As done in scale 1, I used a 3B, 2B, and HB pencil as the tool to map the salinity levels where I then overlayed with the dotting. This shows to be very successful and the two layers do not compete with each other. Both layers are clear. What can be improved is the hatching of the mangrove layer which looks harsh. To improve I could do a simple line dash and decrease the opacity of the layer.
Iteration 4 - For the mangrove layer I lightly hatched the mangrove layer in illustator and chose the colour to be a dark grey. However the grey doesn't appear to be obvious so in the final iteration I will make this black. I do like the light hatching and it works well with the rest of the map.
Annotations
Personal Scale
Iteration Series 1: Developing
Iteration Series 2: Refining
Edited images with base line drawing
Iteration 1 - I lined up the images side by side. There needs to more of a balance when placing the images on the river as you can no longer see the river. For improvement I might try and rearrange them so that the river can also be seen.
Iteration 2 - I like the alignment of the images here but the river and the images still seem to merge with each other. In further iterations I plan to add a bit of colour to the image so that the images can have more of a focus.
Iteration 3 - I like the colour of the images here, however again, the river and the images seem to not be working together. For the final iteration I am going to separate the images so that there are gaps between them
Act of Care
Iteration 1 - The poem is a bit short and could do with more onomatopoeia. However, I do like the description and my attempt at trying to create a story so that the reader can understand an aspect of Parramatta river.
Iteration 2 - I like the length of the poem but I still feel that it needs more onomatopoeia. Aspects of the poem are also confusing and the story isn't flowing.
Photo series: documenting the act
