Portarlington Map design finished, needs colour

THE Portarlington Map is on the cusp of completion, with the map’s final design finished in black and white.

Map producer and founder of City Maps Illustrated Melinda Clarke said completing the drawing of the Portarlington Map has come with a mixture of relief and accomplishment after more than 1,000 hours of work.

“There’s also a tinge of sadness too because illustrator Deborah Young and I do this process together, and we’re just totally engrossed in the design of the map, we enjoy doing that,” Ms Clarke said.

“We’ve been doing these maps since the late eighties and it’s still just as much fun, so there’s a mixture of emotions to hand over the map for this portion of production.

“We know Sean Rodwell, our colourist, will do a fantastic job as always and we can’t wait to share the map in the next few weeks.”

The map, which began two years ago, will now go through six weeks of digitised colouring to complete the final stage of its production, before all map designs are available to the public in October.

Based in St Leonards, 10km from Portarlington, Ms Clarke said she felt a strong sense of pride to produce a map so close to home.

“There is just a whole lot of the team’s personality embedded in the map and we’re hoping that shines through to how the locals feel about the end product,” Ms Clarke said.

“It’s just nice to showcase the town in this way, and I’d almost consider it my swan song on any more big map projects.”

Pre-sales for colourised maps are now available at themelbournemap.com.au/products/the-portarlington-map as well as black and white prints.