{"id":2245027,"date":"2026-11-08T09:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T06:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2245027"},"modified":"2026-11-08T09:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T06:18:10","slug":"how-a-hit-and-run-led-to-a-labour-of-love-for-maps-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2245027","title":{"rendered":"How a hit-and-run led to a labour of love for maps artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/d7e0\/live\/dc2bdb30-db59-11f1-ad76-19cbf76aebb9.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"JoshuaJoshua Tabti<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Much of Joshua’s work to date has been inspired by JRR Tolkien<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When Joshua Tabti found himself housebound while recovering from a hit-and-run crash in 2019, he decided to finally take on a project he had been putting off – with Middle-earth as his inspiration.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I really wanted to draw a map of Iceland, where I used to live – I worked there for a year as a glacier guide,” explains the 32-year-old from his studio on a drizzly Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Unable to continue in his job as a climbing instructor due to his injuries, Joshua found a new purpose in cartography, which has since become his career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Making maps is the main passion. I studied art at university. I also really love geography, language and history,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I get to combine all of them in one, so it’s a real passion.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Joshua’s latest project – painstakingly researched over two months before it was carefully crafted with dip pen and ink – is a map of Yorkshire and Lancashire inspired by those produced by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"JoshuaJoshua Tabti<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Joshua Tabti began drawing maps while recovering from a hit-and-run crash<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He says: “A map of Yorkshire is something I have wanted to tackle for a couple of years, so I have slowly been researching it and trying to gather a database of all the locations and particularly the hidden gems that I wouldn’t to be able to find online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s been a bit of a bigger project than I expected. Going from coast to coast also includes Lancashire, so there was much more research that went into it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Joshua spends roughly half of his time on a project completing research before the intricate process of drawing begins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s a lot of careful inkwork,” he admits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Any errors involve “a lot of rubbing out”, or shaving off the top layer of paper.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Joshua also sought the input of local residents on an online forum for his latest piece of work to help refine the project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“To me it’s really important that the landscapes are very recognisable to a local,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s a great way to fill in any gaps. It’s really encouraging to read comments from people and I think the thing that matters most is that people feel represented, or when someone recognises the details and all the effort. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“That makes me proud.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"JoshuaJoshua Tabti<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Joshua’s maps can take months to research and draw<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Hertfordshire-based Joshua estimates he has now made about 30 pictorial maps, depicting landscapes as diverse as the island of Ireland, Malaysia and Virginia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“In medieval times people would draw the landscape from an oblique angle, I have really enjoyed bringing to life that old tradition.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Tolkien remains his main inspiration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I grew up in High Wycombe and had no real idea as a child that we were actually that close to London,” he recalls.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We would just go on picnics and to the countryside. It was a friend at school that introduced me to the books. Those stories became a symbol for home in a way, and friendship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“That sort of stuff is quite a big theme in the books. The maps fascinated me as a boy, as a teenager.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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His labour of love, born out of misery, has also led to the discovery of new places.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“That’s the pleasure because I get to learn so much about a location, its culture, its history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I really enjoy visiting through the pen.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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One such location was the French Alps, which had been next on his list of places to visit prior to being hit by a car while cycling in south London.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“To finally visit and see the landscapes I had known so well from drawing them, but had never stayed in, that was a real pleasure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“The blessing in disguise was that it [the crash] got me back into illustration and art.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“That was a silver lining of a rubbish accident.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to highlights from <\/i>West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest <\/i>episode of Look North<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c39wz4pl5xgxo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/d7e0\/live\/dc2bdb30-db59-11f1-ad76-19cbf76aebb9.jpg”] Joshua Tabti Much of Joshua’s work to date has been inspired by JRR Tolkien When Joshua Tabti found himself housebound while recovering from a hit-and-run crash in 2019, he decided to finally take on a project he had been putting off – with Middle-earth as his inspiration. “I really wanted to draw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2245027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2245027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2245027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2245027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2245027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}