Europe from Memory

Some time ago, I saw a series of posts about drawing maps from memory. Kottke pointed to this one. I always liked maps, and wondered how well could I draw a map. That night at home, almost at midnight, I resolved to draw the map of Europe from memory. I am not from Europe, though I have been living in London for the last 4 years. This is what I drew. Click on it to see it enlarged.

As it says in the caption, it took me like 20 minutes to draw it in pencil and then ink it and paint it with fiber pens. My initial sketch had Italy bordering with Germany, but then I realized I was missing Switzerland and Austria. Getting the relative sizes of Spain, France and Germany "right" also took me a while. The Balkans, no idea. Eastern Europe, not much beyond Poland and Czech Republic.

It was a very edifying exercise. I was surprised by how much I could draw. I was also surprised at not being able to place Belgium properly. Overall, I am proud.