FROM the Fred Dibnah statue in the town centre to Smithills Hall, an artist has managed to cram in Bolton’s best-known attractions into an impressive doodle map.
Manchester-based Dave Gee - known as Dave Draws - is well known for his highly detailed drawings having produced maps of towns and cities across the UK in his signature monochrome linear style.
His designs are so popular he's even been commissioned to produce murals and sells his maps on items such as mugs and bags.
Now following demand for a Bolton version, Dave, 30, has finally put pen to paper and created a map of the borough.
Bolton Doodle Map by Dave Draws - cropped
Dave said: “I ran a couple of competitions throughout lockdown asking where I should draw next, and Bolton always received lots of votes but never quite made it to the top.
“So eventually I decided to go ahead with it because it was so popular.
“I did a call out on social media asking for suggestions of places to draw on the map, there were so many I couldn’t even fit them in.
“It was nice as usually I have to fill out the edges of my maps with drawings of houses but with Bolton I drew signs to all the places off the map, like Rivington Pike.”
Dave Gee creates artwork under the name Dave Draws, next to one of his murals
Dave starts the process of map drawing - which takes around a week - by researching the area and planning out where things go.
He then draws directly with pen onto paper and the finished map is scanned into a computer to create darker lines - but no corrections are made.
Bolton Doodle Map by artist Dave Draws
The artist added: “Sometime if I make mistakes I try and turn them into bushes or amend a sign, but with Bolton it all went fine.
“For some reason I found the stadium quite tricky to draw, I usually go by an aerial view and this one just seemed particularly challenging.
Bolton Doodle Map by artist Dave Draws
“It was a fun map to create and compared to other maps it’s got a lot of well-known places - like the St Gregory’s Social Club where Phoenix Nights was filmed.”
The prints are available to buy on his website www.davedraws.co.uk and more items featuring the Bolton map design are in the pipeline.
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