Behind the scenes of creating 512 miniature masterpieces - and turning them into beautiful prints
People often ask me how on earth I managed to draw 512 tiny squares without going completely mad. The honest answer? I nearly did! But the process was so absorbing, so meditative, and ultimately so rewarding that I found myself completely lost in the world of miniature Whitstable.
Let me take you behind the scenes of how Whitstable Squared came to life, from those first tentative sketches to the gorgeous prints now hanging in homes and businesses around town.
Starting Small (Really, Really Small)
When I say the original squares are tiny, I mean tiny. Each one measures just 25 x 25mm - that's smaller than a postage stamp! To put that in perspective, if you placed a 20p coin over one of my original drawings, it would completely cover it with room to spare.
Working at this scale requires a completely different mindset. There's no room for grand gestures or sweeping brushstrokes. Every single mark has to count. Every tiny dot of pen or watercolour has to be placed with precision. It's like creating art through a magnifying glass - which, incidentally, I often had to use!
The Artist's Toolkit
My setup was beautifully simple: fine-tip pens for the detailed line work, one pale blue watercolour for those subtle washes and a tiny tiniest brush. I worked on slightly rough watercolour paper that could handle both the pen work and the delicate colour washes without bleeding.
The real challenge wasn't the materials - it was the discipline. Each 100 x 100mm grid contained 16 squares, and I didn't actually see a completed 16 square grid until near the very end of the project. . No completing a grid and then onto the next one, no doing the "fun" squares, no leaving the tricky architectural details for later. It was methodical, almost meditative work. Because I didn't want any repeats and I tended to draw all the same category of pictures (eg beach huts) at the same time, just placing one in each or alternate grid. Once those were completely, I moved onto the next category shell, for example.
Five Months of Discovery
Over five months, I created 32 complete grids - that's 512 individual artworks, each one unique, each one capturing slices of Whitstable life. I had set myself a target of 6 per day, but as usual, life got in the way some days. Towards the end of the project I gave myself a completion date as I knew without a date, the project may have (1) gone on and one or (2) never got completed. I work well to deadlines.
The Challenge of Authenticity
One of my strictest rules was that everything had to be genuinely Whitstable. Every bird I drew had to be native to the North Kent coast. Every shell had to be one you'd actually find on our beaches. Every building had to exist exactly as I'd drawn it. This meant countless reference photos, lots of research, and sometimes going back to locations multiple times to get the details just right. As a last resort I sometimes used google, but the large proportion of reference photos were all my own, taken over the years.
The seaweed alone required several trips to the beach and trying to match what I had seen with reference photos on the web. These tiny details matter when you're trying to capture the authentic spirit of a place.
From Miniature to Magnificent
Once all 512 squares were complete, the next challenge was turning these miniature artworks into prints that would do justice to the original detail while being large enough for people to actually see and enjoy.
This is where keeping everything local became really important to me. I worked with a printer right here in Whitstable (staying within that CT5 postcode!) to ensure the images were perfect, the detail was crisp, and the paper quality was exactly right. We went through lots test prints, adjusting opacity, colours and checking that even the tiniest details remained sharp and clear.
Print Options That Work
The beauty of the 16 x 32 grid format is its flexibility. The artwork works beautifully as a single large landscape print - perfect for making a statement on a big wall. Flip it 90 degrees and it becomes an elegant portrait format that fits perfectly in narrower spaces.
But my favourite option might be the two A3 prints designed to hang side by side. There's something lovely about the way this breaks up the image while maintaining the flow between the two halves. It's like having a diptych that tells the complete Whitstable story across two frames.
The Finishing Touches
Even the framing had to be right. I source my frames from a Kent supplier because it felt important that something celebrating Whitstable should be supported by local businesses at every step. The frames are simple - allowing the artwork to be the realy focus without competing with all those intricate details.
Quality You Can See
When you see a Whitstable Squared print you're getting a reproduction that captures every single pen stroke, every delicate wash, every tiny detail that I spent five months perfecting. The printing quality is so good that people often think they're looking at the original artwork.
A Labour of Love
Looking back, creating Whitstable Squared was probably the most intensive artistic project I've ever undertaken. But it was also the most rewarding. Every single one of those 512 squares represents a moment of discovery, a small celebration of this town I've grown to love so much.
And now, seeing the prints in people's homes and local businesses, watching visitors spend ages examining all the tiny details, hearing locals exclaim "Oh, I know exactly where that is!" - that makes every painstaking hour worthwhile.
Ready to see all that detail for yourself? Browse our print options and bring home your own piece of Whitstable's story. Each print comes with a QR code so you can discover what's hidden in every single square!
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