Handmade Hawaiian Islands Map(notesfromtheroad.com)
notesfromtheroad.com
Handmade Hawaiian Islands Map
https://www.notesfromtheroad.com/roam/hawaiian-islands-map.html
34 comments
Hi all — thanks for the comments and discussion. A few people correctly pointed out that calling these maps "hand-painted" was misleading, and that’s correct. The previous version of the map, which I replaced a few days ago, was entirely hand-painted. These new maps are mixed-media...probably about 80% Adobe Fresco (a tablet drawing app), but both also incorporate physical watercolor and Copic marker layers that I scanned into the final artwork. Most of my maps are still primarily hand-painted, with just place names in Photoshop. My Cuba map is probably a better example of that approach. The goal of this update wasn't about art...I wanted maps that better tell the full story of the Hawaiian Islands. The history and geography of all those atolls and maps are fascinating, and I do geek out/recommend a Google Earth/Wikipedia rabbit hole of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for anyone interested in remote islands.
Finally, someone who likes to geek out about the Hawaiian islands the same way I do.
I am in no way qualified to critique cartography, but I would like to give some constructive criticism as someone who used to live there. A few of the labels imply the island is in a different spot.
For instance Mokuhoʻoniki is to the east of Molokai, but it appears to be to its north in your map.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/21%C2%B008'00.7%2522N+156%...
I am glad you included some of the bathymetric info in the map, as it reveals a lot about how the islands formed and what they might have looked like in the past. (Check out “Maui Nui”). The downside is that some of the seamounts imply many small above sea level islands exist. For instance, it looks like there are a tiny smattering of islands to the southwest of the Big Island around Kuhulu Rock. But those seamounts are unrelated to the Hawaiian hotspot and are deeply submerged. The reason I noted Mokuhoʻoniki is because that appears to be where the Tuscaloosa Seamount is located.
That seamount is fascinating in and of itself, is it is actually a massive fragment of the Koʻolau mountain that slid into the sea millions of years ago.
I’d be thrilled to talk more about your map, and provide any more interesting details. The last thing I’d like to add is that the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have Hawaiian names as well. You may be interested in providing those names. For instance, the Gardner Pinnacles is known as Pūhāhonu.
I am in no way qualified to critique cartography, but I would like to give some constructive criticism as someone who used to live there. A few of the labels imply the island is in a different spot.
For instance Mokuhoʻoniki is to the east of Molokai, but it appears to be to its north in your map.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/21%C2%B008'00.7%2522N+156%...
I am glad you included some of the bathymetric info in the map, as it reveals a lot about how the islands formed and what they might have looked like in the past. (Check out “Maui Nui”). The downside is that some of the seamounts imply many small above sea level islands exist. For instance, it looks like there are a tiny smattering of islands to the southwest of the Big Island around Kuhulu Rock. But those seamounts are unrelated to the Hawaiian hotspot and are deeply submerged. The reason I noted Mokuhoʻoniki is because that appears to be where the Tuscaloosa Seamount is located.
That seamount is fascinating in and of itself, is it is actually a massive fragment of the Koʻolau mountain that slid into the sea millions of years ago.
I’d be thrilled to talk more about your map, and provide any more interesting details. The last thing I’d like to add is that the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have Hawaiian names as well. You may be interested in providing those names. For instance, the Gardner Pinnacles is known as Pūhāhonu.
Thank you so much for the feedback...yes, I want to work on a more precise pass and fix some of the issues and Hawaiian names. Is there a way we can get in touch by email? Or send me a note here and I'll write you back: https://www.notesfromtheroad.com/about/contact.html
I have a fondness for map making and I enjoy your style regardless of digital or physical media. Have you ever created an article on your process? I'd be interested in reading about your flow.
Appreciate it, and I’d almost rather tell you about my workflow on my latest project, because it was 400 hours of work…the art was totally physical art…(176 fruits)...but the workflow was very digital, and there were so many parts to it that it is almost laughable…My maps are really easy to create; they became a little more sophisticated when a Travel Channel pilot asked me to make maps for their show, and, thinking the show would last longer than the pilot, I invested all this time in working on different maps. Basically, I need rights to the source outline, and that’s usually pretty easy. Sometimes I have bought a stock art outline to make sure I had rights. There are 3 ways to get that on watercolor paper or bristol. I can trace it on a light table, I can copy it by hand, or I can do the outline in Fresco and print to watercolor paper (I have only been able to do this for the past 6 months and is the dream workflow for this). Then I usually try different things, but its basically about building blue outlines with a fine watercolor brush or a Copic pen for the water and earthtones or greens for the landmass. Then using bigger brushes to slowly build the interior colors. My goal is often to do something a bit weird or challenging the way people think of the colors of a certain place. In the case of the two Hawaii maps, I was traveling but had cancelled plans, so I had two days alone with my Tablet, and I just kept trying different things. It ended up being about 3 key layers: making those depth layers very transparent and light. At home, I had started creating physical watercolor and Copic to the islands, and integrated that as a very light transparent layer; I can never get Fresco watercolor to feel right (although there are also 4 layers of Fresco watercolor spatter on the islands.) My scanner is only 9x12, so the biggest challenge of any of these projects that involves larger physical artwork is stitching the parts together in Photoshop. I always thought that maps enhance travel or science writing…National Geo and Outside as examples…and so I try to create maps when it can help my story. For all this detail I gave you though, full handpainted maps (like Malta and Tunisia) were probably just an hour or two to completion.
You should make a work flow YT video! It would be worth a watch
I appreciate that you made that, when I lived in Hawaii for half a year I was surprised to learn that seafaring people and other travellers were going to places I couldn’t see on the base Google map. You had to zoom in and know where to.
And in many cases, bring your passport.
Interesting Waterworld out there
And in many cases, bring your passport.
Interesting Waterworld out there
You may be intrigued by a channel between Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe named “Kealaikahiki”, which translates to “The road to Tahiti”. Following the direction of the channel will lead to Tahiti. I find this fascinating because voyages between the Hawaiian islands and the rest of Polynesia appeared to have stopped, or became very rare, after the initial settlement. How incredible is it that the name of a place retains such a connection to the rest of the world?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channels_of_the_Hawaiian_Islan...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channels_of_the_Hawaiian_Islan...
What a fantastic site. I got in for the Hawai'i maps and stayed and browsed the entire site, reading thru various blog posts. Loved the Iceland journey to see the Puffins. <3
Beautifully made, and it shows.
Would love to see your map-making workflow.
And I like the birdlist too <3
Beautifully made, and it shows.
Would love to see your map-making workflow.
And I like the birdlist too <3
Huge thanks
One of those islands, Lānaʻi, is 98% owned by Larry Ellison
I expected a mostly privately owned island to be much smaller than that.
It is so massive he has to make affordances Epstein never had to. You can visit Lanai today for example. I took a day trip there a couple years ago. Saw the cat sanctuary. Not much else to do there. There is a little holdover company town inland from the Dole days but I didn't visit that. I'm not sure how much time Ellison even spends there. I get the sense that having these some 3k common folk holdout residents plus visitors makes it a bit less attractive than it might have seemed when he signed his name on 98% of a Hawaiian island. Seems a couple years ago he shifted his primary residency to his mansion near Mar a Lago. Bored of the plaything now, I guess.
The size of the land isn’t inherently why those concessions were made.
Hawaii had full legal authority to sell the entire thing, the same as the US Virgin Islands had full legal authority to sell Little St James
There is nothing in the parent US constitution deterring that either.
Hawaiian authorities partially by a hair sliver decided to try to do something to benefit the Hawaiian people in the face of capital, while collecting the capital. A more patient Ellison or one determined not to have anyone there could have wound up with the whole large private island.
Hawaii had full legal authority to sell the entire thing, the same as the US Virgin Islands had full legal authority to sell Little St James
There is nothing in the parent US constitution deterring that either.
Hawaiian authorities partially by a hair sliver decided to try to do something to benefit the Hawaiian people in the face of capital, while collecting the capital. A more patient Ellison or one determined not to have anyone there could have wound up with the whole large private island.
I looked into it because I was curious. Apparently state of Hawaii has owned the 2% for some time, maybe 100 years. Ellison bought the land directly from murdoch who owned the holding company that owned Dole and the 98% portion. So Unfortunately for Hawaii they didn't really make anything off Ellison buying the vast bulk of the island. Maybe in some taxes when it was sold perhaps.
Also, Hawaii, going back to the territory days 120 years ago, did not have authority to sell the whole thing either. There was a cattle rancher who owned half of it and he wanted the other half, and he worked out a land exchange deal to secure nearly the whole thing without having to do a sale and work around the hawaiian organic act.
Also, Hawaii, going back to the territory days 120 years ago, did not have authority to sell the whole thing either. There was a cattle rancher who owned half of it and he wanted the other half, and he worked out a land exchange deal to secure nearly the whole thing without having to do a sale and work around the hawaiian organic act.
now that's a fun rabbit hole. private individual/family land owners for centuries now, while just our very public tech royalty gets the ire as if they are new.
I spent some time on a Pacific island. After a couple weeks, I ran out of things to do and places to go, and was bored stiff.
Maui was like that for me after a few months. I found the timezone more alianating than the location.
This is probably his zombie apocalypse location that he has on stand by
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Disappointed we aren't shown the actual, physical hand drawn maps.
And the font used seems very familiar so I assume the text was added during the digital manipulation phase?
And the font used seems very familiar so I assume the text was added during the digital manipulation phase?
I do not think there are any hand drawn maps. From what I can tell, its Adobe fresco with digital watercolor and digital copic pens. Still looks great, but there is a lot of confusion on the process.
That makes sense. The wording made it sound like it was hand drawn on a medium like paper, not a computer. To me, hand drawn implies using physical paper and marking tools. This is digital illustration which implies hand drawn input to a computer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_illustration
there's more map than text on that page, so maybe something wrong with your browser
The font on the map, not the web page text.
I’d be interested in buying prints
I didnt intend this to be for sale, but later this summer, if I don't have a print for sale, I'll send you the hi-res to print yourself. Thanks for being interested!
Laughable project. Sorry but I expected a WAY lower scale. People were able to map entire cities block by block by hand in the 16th century...
This is not even a map but an outline of islands and without any scale...
"A map without scale and legend is not a valid map" - i know that from 4th grade...
Most disappointing post of 2026 so far.
At least there is no AI slop. 2/5
This is not even a map but an outline of islands and without any scale...
"A map without scale and legend is not a valid map" - i know that from 4th grade...
Most disappointing post of 2026 so far.
At least there is no AI slop. 2/5