# About Me
Hi! I'm Wyton, a transport planner in Singapore, and I like to draw maps of railway systems by hand as a hobby.
It started about 15 years ago, when I first visited Tokyo with my parents as a kid. I don't have much recollection of the trip itself, but I still remember being absolutely bowled over by the sheer size and complexity of the railway network printed on the tourist guide we brought along for the trip. Singapore had just opened its third subway line a couple of years back then — in comparison, I couldn't count the number of lines the Tokyo one had. Ever since, I've been copying and refining maps of Tokyo railway systems. (You can find out more in my map post on Tokyo.)
My main focus is on maps of Japanese railway systems, because I'm really infatuated by how complex it is. One thing which makes Japanese railway systems challenging and exciting to draw is their rather special situation in terms of its railway market — whereas most cities and countries employ only a few operators (sometimes only one), cities in Japan, especially big cities like Osaka and Tokyo, can have a whole host of operators both competing and collaborating with each other. As a result, unique arrangements in railway operations can arise. For example, many subway lines in Tokyo have "through service" — that is, they don't stop at their termini, but continue along another company's lines. This makes it an interesting challenge to encapsulate that in a map, because lines in railway maps are usually drawn separate from each other.
I like to hand-draw my maps rather than designing them digitally (as is the usual practice now), for a couple of reasons. Firstly, digital software such as Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator allow you to re-do the layout, and the look and feel of your map, if you've made a mistake. So you have lots of freedom to try out stuff and see if it works, and finally arrive at a perfect, or near-perfect, version of the map. But I like the idea of embracing and incorporating mistakes into my works. (Also, the perfectionist streak in me would make me re-do sections of the map over and over again, and then laziness kicks in and I'll never get the job done.)
Secondly, I feel like it personalises the map. For instance, there is just something about hand-drawing straight lines which makes it different from a printed one. Perhaps it's the human connection between the art and the artist — you can feel the artist in a much more corporeal way than through the intermediate medium of a design software. (Of course, that's not to say that any map designed digitally doesn't have the artist's fingerprint; inat's and ZeroPerZero's (opens new window) maps are almost instantly recognisable.)
My take on layouting is a mix between geographic accuracy (especially between stations near each other) and cleanliness (not too many unnecessary kinks and curves). I feel that it captures the stories of how different lines and stations relate to each other, and also the interactions between companies who operate them. I don't aim to design the most user-friendly map, nor try to create something artistically astounding: it's more of an expression of amazement at how complex railway systems can be.
The maps do take a while to complete, however, since they are hand-drawn — along the tune of a few months from the first strokes to the complete map. (It helps that I leave the mistakes as-is.)
Apart from drawing maps, I also like to play computer games (city-builders like SimCity 4 and Cities:Skylines, as well as transportation simulations like Chris Sawyer's Locomotion and Railway Tycoon). If I'm not doing either, then I'm (very sporadically) playing the piano and making solo piano compositions.
I hope you enjoy your stay here, and see you soon.
Wyton Chu