Drawing an atlas. One man's attempt to doodle the world. 

I've decided to create an atlas. Why? You ask? Atlases exist already. There is nowhere left in the world that needs to be charted. Yeah I know, I know. But what if it was a natural atlas? Maps made up of native flowers, leaves, plants and stuff. 

So yeah. The Natural Atlas. It's a coloring book. I make coloring books. It's what I do. I like maps. Old maps. Old atlases. Looking at land forms, discovering little islands that you didn't know existed. I also like leaves and flowers. 

The hardest part was picking the countries I'd doodle. I can't do all of 'em. Apparently there are 196 countries in the world. But that's debatable. I could only do between 20 and 30 for a coloring book. USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand were the first obvious choices - these are the countries that my followers are from. But I also wanted to do the other countries near me - Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, France. Then I also wanted to include Spain, South Africa, The Netherlands. It was simple really. Pick the prettiest most popular countries. 

All the countries are hand drawn and I researched their national flowers to be included in the doodle. Hence, England has a rose, The Netherlands have a tulip, Australia has the golden wattles, and so on. All of the countries have detailed little leaves and flowers to color in. 

I'm gonna also include a compass and flag on each page - just as a little extra. 

This book isn't finished yet, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Reply if you like and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. 

Steve Squidoodle Turner

xx