Travel Poster

I made this whimsical travel poster using one of my favorite birds - the crow.

16 x 20 art board or canvas. I used the 16 x 20 option because I already had a black frame. You can make the poster any size.

map - France

pencil, art pens, glue sticks, scissors, iron

First I ironed out the folds of the map. I cut the map to fit my art board (16 x 20).

Starting at the top of the art board and using a glue stick I put about 4 inches of glue across the board. Carefully put the map on the glue and smooth. Try to avoid bubbles and wrinkles. Continue adding about 4 inches of glue, smooth the map - do this until you come to the bottom of the art board and map.

on scrap paper I drew the crow and backpack until I had the size I wanted.

I used the center of the map for the placement of the crow. I transferred my drawing to the map.

I made my own "carbon" paper by simply scribbling with a dark pencil on the back side of the paper. Once I had the crow in the spot I wanted, I used the pencil to go over my original lines which transferred to the map.

With a pencil, I traced around letter stencils to place my words. I used the horizontal lines on the map to get the letters straight. I went over my pencil outlines with an art pen and then started coloring in the letters.

(the lettering could also be done with sticker letters or letters cut from old magazines)

using a black art pen I started coloring the crow. I used a red pen for the sunglasses. I left the back pack and strap as an outline only - letting the map be the "fabric". Notice that I cut out green shade from the map scraps to fill in the "sunglasses".

from the map scraps, I cut out the mileage legend. On the computer I typed the words "as the crow flies". I cut the strip of words and glued it to the legend. Then I glued the legend to the map.

using map scraps, I cut very small strips to give the tail and wing some detail.