[The Guardian] Drawn off course​: portraits ​​created on​ vintage maps - in pictures

Drawn off course​: portraits ​​created on​ vintage maps - in pictures

British artist Ed Fairburn started his map portraits in 2012 while studying illustration at Cardiff School of Art and Design. “I was interested in ‘hijacking’ ordinary objects – a sort of off-road style of drawing using anything but plain paper,” he says. He started with envelopes, but switched after an experiment involving a portrait on a road map of Germany. He calls his technique topopointillism. “The portraits are often too subtle to spot up close on a map. Just like with a pointillist painting, you have to step back to allow the bigger picture to emerge,” he says. Fairburn doesn’t “see” people in the topography – like spotting animal shapes in clouds – instead, distinctive structural landscape patterns inspire him. “I hope people get lost in the details of my work; I want it to serve as a reminder that we are a product of the landscape, this place we call home.”

• See more at edfairburn.com

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Source: Drawn off course​: portraits ​​created on​ vintage maps - in pictures

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