Cities Drawn by Hand

Speaking of maps, Eric Jaffe has a piece for The Atlantic Cities on the hand drawn maps created by illustrator Jenni Sparks:

In a world of digital renderings and computer graphics, illustrator Jenni Sparks prefers to draw cities by hand. This past spring, just in time for the Olympics, Sparks completed a wonderfully intricate hand-drawn map of London. Earlier this month she duplicated that feat for New York, capturing most of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

The intricate detail in the resulting hand drawn maps is amazing and the amount of research involved is astounding.