Illustrating an Island of Mystery and Magic

September 2025

Treasure Island Map

Last month, I had the opportunity to work on something magical. 📚 ✨

I was asked to design a treasure map for the Bath Kids Literary Festival, which would also be used at other venues around Bath and Somerset. These included Longleat Safari Park, Bath Rugby ground and the Holburne Museum, to name a few, all to promote the joy of literature.

To create Treasure Island, I spent time scouring old maps, both physically and online. I often collect maps from places I visit - for example, gardens, museums, galleries etc, and have a particular fondness for the more creative ones that are largely inaccurate scale-wise but beautiful to look at. 

This project also gave me the excuse to delve into my collection of old Ordnance Survey maps that I’ve acquired from second-hand bookshops, flea markets and charity shops, to name a few.

I always loved studying maps and drawing my own when I was a kid, my brother and I (children of the 90s - no internet to distract us) would spend hours scribbling away, surrounded by sheets of paper we stole from the printer, making up places to put down in image form. We would copy symbols from actual maps and label place names, which were a combination of fictional and places we knew. I'm not sure why we were so into them. Maybe we were just weird kids. I was particularly shy as a child, so it acted as a form of escapism. The irony is that I'm actually a terrible map reader, and if you ask anyone close to me, they'll tell you I'm always getting lost. 

Now, sitting at my desk, in 2025, I got into the mindset by putting on a ‘medieval sleep sounds’ playlist from Spotify - nerdy, I know, but I find it so useful as it puts me at ease and drowns out the noise in my mind when working. I lit a candle and studied the maps, taking note of things that stood out to me before starting to draw. 

I perused the pamphlet about the literature event and looked at the incredible work of some of the featured authors, for inspiration on the characters that would feature. You might notice them within the map - or at least I hoped the attendees would find them. 

The wonderful staff at Bath Festivals had my design printed and mounted. It was exciting to see it at A1 size, and I was pleased with how the colours came out. As I created it part by hand (watercolour painting) and part digitally, it’s a bit nerve-racking waiting to see if the colours have been reproduced as you hoped, and I’m happy to say in this case they were bang on. 

It was cool seeing kids and adults alike interacting with the map, making up their own stories, and finding characters within. It was endearing to see people’s imaginations being sparked by something my mind came up with.

I find it so important to keep the magic of our imaginations alive, especially in a world that often seems gloomy, serious and hectic. Projects like these allow me to tune back into that childlike sense of wonder, and for that I’m truly grateful.

I hope I get to create many more illustrated maps, because I loved it. If you’re interested in working together on something similar, please feel free to get in touch. 

Katie x

Bath Kids Lit Fest:
bathfestivals.org.uk/bath-literature-festival

Bath Rugby