Ancient Etruscan and Roman Villas

A few sketches for those banking on a super lux fairytale wedding in Tuscany. Who wouldn't want to soak up villa-vibes at Borgo Stomennano and drink fine wines in Monteriggioni.

maps, polar exploration, and scurvy

I've been back at my map series, just finishing my latest on polar exploration after reading: Albanov's journey, Shackleton's voyage (even though it was the Antarctic), Nansen, and seems like there was one more. This map is lightly based on those journeys on foot around the polar areas of Franz Josef Land, Svalbard, Novaya Zemlya in the Barents Sea.

I posted this picture on instagram and got linked back to all of these awesome maps! Map heaven. Indulge me.

From left to right: @jenmfarrell_, @patriciacrowther78, @all_about_them_books, @seannasbooks, @livros.by.ropis, @lilyandbooks, @travel_books_life, @bookswithdylan, @ughfiction

tuesday

Hello, blog. How are you today? I'm doing fairly well, thank you. Just wondering where our second day of rain is. The weather man told us we would get two days of rain, which is a big deal for us parched Angelenos. Yesterday was perfect. I sat next to my big window and drew all day with the rain falling outside; it was magical.
I'm pretty happy that I get to draw my favorite things for this current project I'm working on. That would be Maps!

I had an "emergency" trip to NYC last week and started this incredible book on the plane - The Fourth Part of the World, by Toby Lester. All those pieces of Medieval history that seem so vague and were never really delved into in school (Marco Polo, Amerigo Vespucci, the Black Plague, Genghis Khan, etc), this book weaves them all together through the story of maps.

Lester started the investigation and book when a map from 1507 sold for more than the US Declaration of Independence at an auction. What was the map? The Waldseemuller Map, the first map of the entire world including the continents of North and South America, and the first map to name America (sorry Columbus, snooze you lose).

Buy a poster