Commission: New Orleans French Quarter, 1872

[LizardInk]

This map is for THE BEAUTIFUL, a new historical vampire series by Renee Ahdieh, publishing this October from Penguin Random House.

For the history buffs: I'll admit, when I was commissioned to draw a highly detailed map of the New Orleans French Quarter, I was quite daunted--especially since it had to be accurate to 1872! But thanks to some wonderful historical surveys and photographs, I was able to get as close as possible to historically accurate. The significant buildings, like the hotels, convents, and government buildings, are drawn according to photographs and blueprints I was able to dig up. Some of the blocks I was able to find photos of, and the rest were based on these and the architecture of the time and place, while I used a survey map (pasted below) to work out the footprint of the buildings. It was fascinating and challenging given how many times the French Quarter has flooded or burned down; the architecture could change dramatically in just ten years! A few details were altered for the story world, which is after all a fantasy version of NOLA.

It definitely took much more time than any other map I've done, indeed most of last winter was spent on this one. I took a bunch of photos in Google Earth 3D to help with the perspective and isometry, which was a whole other challenge in and of itself.

I also devised the lion and fleur-de-lis symbol which is embossed on the cover of the novel, and the publisher altered the color scheme for the end paper. Posters of the original will also be printed and distributed to readers. (photo credit Penguin Teen)



Here's how it looks on the endpaper, and with the lion crest engraved on the cover.



In case you're curious here's survey map I used for reference--I was SO LUCKY to find this, omg. It also ended up inspiring the color scheme!