Mackinac Island

[Gidde]

So, I've been needing to practice doing real-world maps, so I figured for my next try at ink-and-watercolor, I'd join the lite challenge entrants in spirit if not in entry

Mackinac Island, for those who aren't from Michigan, is a small island between the two peninsulas of the state, where motorized vehicles have almost never been allowed (they make exceptions for emergency vehicles and movies and other rare stuff). It has two forts on it, and it's just a cool place to go, to ride horses all over the place, and, hopefully, to map.

So I grabbed a screenshot from OpenStreetMap ... grabbed several more at a higher res because the first one didn't cut it, and stitched them all together for base map #1. Then I found another open map that had a better coastline for base map #2, and scaled/rotated the whole kit and kaboodle to fit my paper.

Then I overlaid a grid over the whole thing in gimp, and gridded my paper to match (0.5" intervals), and 1 grid-square at a time, recreated the coastline in a hard pencil. Then inked the coastline with the dip pen so that I can't accidentally erase it as I sketch the innards of the island going forward, and that's where I stop for tonight (and maybe for a few days - I slipped on ice today and landed on my back, so I may be heading back to the doc tomorrow).


This whole project is licensed CC-BY-SA. Data from OpenStreetMap contributors, Eric Gaba (who did the fantastic topo map I'm using as Base #2) and eventually I'll be using stuff from the USGS National Map.

[Diamond]

1. My dad lived near there for quite a while as a young man back in the early 60s; he worked as a card dealer in some kind of casino up there. I'll have to point this thread out to him.

2. I think you need one of those huge padded fake-sumo wrestler suits so you can avoid further damage. Hope it's nothing serious!

[Gidde]

Lmao! My husband threatened to wrap me in a MichelinMan costume. He laughed hard when I read him your comment

Happy to report that the next-day flareup of the old injury did not in fact occur. Just bruised and sore, and that's no biggie!

[Jaxilon]

Slipped on ICE!?! I'm debating if I should wear shorts today..... 8~D

Hope you get feeling better quickly. You have to be more careful.

I remember when I was in high school, we lived at a high elevation and there was ice on the parking lot. For some reason I was wearing cowboy boots at the time (small western town, I know) and walking across the lot between classes. I hit a patch of ice I didn't see and wound up with my back parallel to the ground, windmilling my arms in reverse. I had one foot on the ground and the other straight out as I slid across the ice. Fortunately the ice patch ended and my foot still on the ground dug into the asphalt pitching my body back to an upright position. I then walked on as if nothing had happened. It's important of course to look cool when you are a kid. Anyway, I often have wished there was a video of that because it must have been hilarious, my foot sliding like Gumby's with my body even with the ground while my arms windmilled, LOL. Good thing I'm a fast walker or I wouldn't have had the momentum to pull that off.

[ravells]

lol Jax, no need for a video, the mental image is plenty fine!!!

I've actually been to Makinaw Island! We rode horses around the Island and stayed in this 19th Century hotel - I loved it!

[Gidde]

@jax: what a fantastic story. this one also must have been comical as it was the classic banana-peel slip >.<

@ravs: Cool!! you picked a great part of michigan to visit I've only ever done day trips, always wanted to stay at the Grand once.