In an attempt to be grounded when all around is hard and crazy, here’s a bookart project to place you exactly where you are: How to draw a 360 degree map.
It’s also a splendid thing to do when you want to be creative and make something, but don’t have much time nor special kit.
You’ll need:
- A4 or letter size paper
- Something to lean on
- A thick crayon or coloured pencil
- Scissors
Step by step:
Sit in a place where you can see all around you.
Set the paper, with the short end towards you, on a flat surface.
Place your crayon/pencil on the paper and, using your non-dominant hand (if you like), begin to draw the outline of the shapes around you, without lifting the crayon from the page, and looking at the page as little as possible.
Draw in an oval, starting from due North, working clock-wise, or anti-clock-wise, you choose.
Don’t worry about scale or perspective. (Braque didn’t – be like Braque!)
When you’ve got back to where you began, admire the quirkiness of your marks and the audacity of your image.
Before that judgemental inner critic pipes up, fold the paper in half width ways, drawing-side-out.
Open out and fold in half long ways.
Then fold a short end in to the middle.
And the other short end too! (I’ve spun it round 90 degrees here.)
Now, with the sheet folded in half width ways again, cut from the creased edge to the middle, as shown.
So you end up with a slit across the centre.
Fold in half length ways, with the slit on the top.
Holding the right and left ends, push them together, into the centre, to form a cross.
Then carefully wrap the pages round until you get a recognisable book shape.
There you are! You’ve mapped 360 degrees. Feel good?!
If you’d like to try more mapping projects, MapLove has instant, lifetime access.
