Limited Edition Fine Art Prints

Iconic hand painted landmarks

A collection of limited edition fine art prints of New Zealand's iconic landmarks. Expertly created with accurate bathymetric details and adorned with colourful Gouache watercolour illustrations of local bird, insect and plant life and places of interest. Place names are handwritten in the artist's own calligraphic style. The perfect piece for that lake bach, avid fisherman or collector of Kiwiana. Each print is signed and numbered by the artist.

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NZ Lakes

NZ Harbours

Whakarewarewa MTB Trails

Wellington Craft Breweries

NZ Lake Maps - Tony Hadlow

Tony Hadlow is the proprietor and Creative Director of fineline design agency, a renown Rotorua creative studio covering many different design pursuits. He is a skilled illustrator able to turn his hand to everything from cartoons and caricatures to line illustration to Gouache watercolour landscapes.

Tony brings his considerable artistic skills as a calligrapher and illustrator producing a series of topographic illustration of some of New Zealand's iconic landmarks. He began with the Lake series (Lake Rotorua, Lake Tarawera, Lake Rotoiti and Lake Okareka) and has expanded the collection to include Tauranga and Wellington Harbours as well as Waiheke Island. Each painting is created from accurate bathymetric data and is adorned with wildlife peculiar to each environment. Wildlife and placenames are annotated in Tony's own calligraphic style using a classic dip pen and Indian ink. The iconic Whakarewarewa Forest Mountain Bike Trails and Wellington Craft Breweries Map are new editions.

Each print is numbered and signed by the artist.

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Research

The first step is sourcing reference of the landscape. I usually purchase reliable bathymetric maps from good sources to ensure the map is the most accurate particularly in terms of water depth and place names.

The next step iis researching the specific birds, fish and/or insects who make the landscape their home. Accurate colour and biological details are important.

Layout

With the bathymetric map I spread pencil lead over the back of the map and tape the map to my media tracing all the details. The layer of pencil lead transfers the details to the media.

The wildlife is sketch by hand from online reference photos.

The lettering is also laid out by pencil in a similar calligraphy style to the finished item.

Painting

I use Gouache watercolour allowing a degree of opacity and layering.

The water areas are tackled first, then the land mass then wildlife. I use a degree of watercolour 'staining' to give the painting a unique look for both the water and land.

Wildlife receive a great degree of attention due to their subtle patterns and colours.

Calligraphy

To finish each art piece, I use a classic steel nib dip pen and Indian ink to trace a contour around lake edges and coastlines.

Then the all-important detail describing the wildlife. This process allows me a more free-form approach.

And lastly...the name of the art emblazoned in classical Roman letters.