Humanity Hallows Issue 5 Out Now
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By Jenna Saville

26-year-old Dave Gee, better known as Dave Draws, is a doodler and illustrator who specialises in producing intricate designs. Based in Manchester, Dave embodies everything we know about the city in his work whilst challenging stereotypical doodle forms.

Now one of the city’s most recognisable artists, Dave cannot believe he is making a living out of the creative work he loves: “I’ve always been drawing, it is just something I fell into as I’ve always been doodling.”

Talking about the niche style of his illustrations, he said, “It wasn’t really a contrived thing, it was just something I always doodled in when I was bored.” His quirky character-filled maps are becoming exceedingly popular as Dave says they’re the products that get most attention.

Dave once lived in Berlin which is where he started his art career and where he frequently displayed his work on the Berlin Art scene. It was not until he moved to Manchester, however, that his line of work began to be in the limelight:

“I was exhibiting one of my older pieces in a group show in Berlin and somebody told me that it looked like a city from above. That put the idea in my head, then, when I moved to Manchester, a friend of mine asked me about drawing onto a street map. I didn’t really know how it would look so I doodled my own map and it started from there.”

Dave has composed maps of various inner city areas, including Manchester City Centre, the Northern Quarter, Didsbury, Hulme, Salford, Chorlton and Stockport. Doodled maps have also been made of several other places such as his home town of Chesterfield and some a bit further afield, including Hamburg and even Hong Kong. He said, “I want to do every city in England and even the world to be honest, it may just take me a little time to do it!”

When composing the maps, he places emphasis on a mix between the big, well-known landmarks and the smaller hidden landmarks, that only locals know about, to make the maps personal to the location. This adds a heightened intensity to the already unique works, as drawing certain focal points of the city bigger or in a different context adds unparalleled texture to his work.

An example of this from the Manchester City Centre map is Gorilla on Whitworth Street. Instead of drawing a building, Dave drew an actual ape. The maps provide a remarkably original take on the city. He said, “The first cities I did were the ones I knew best, but I’m now trying to expand further. I’m still quite locally based at the minute so I want to get more work all round the country.”

One of Dave’s hobbies is travelling, and he was able to combine that with work when he was commissioned to do a mural in China last year. An office asked him to create a mural on a wall, which Dave is no stranger to doing but it was the environment he had an issue with. The majority of the area commissioned to be decorated was a national park. Surrounding this was a built up area that was densely packed with buildings which had to be fixed into small spaces on the map without Dave knowing the city all that well.

He did two maps: one a Manchester map on to a glass wall and, the main piece, a Hong Kong Island map, onto a large, white wall. The biggest challenge was the density of buildings in Hong Kong but the feedback from the project has been very positive and the maps got their official launch in May 2016. Dave said, “I got most of it right…Hong Kong Island was the most demanding mural I’ve done. Despite that, I enjoyed the challenge!”

Dave also does a lot of freelance work a bit closer to home. In the past year he has done murals for UniLad, Manchester Arndale and the Renaissance Hotel. The UniLad mural involved his classic Manchester City Centre map with a twist as it had the UniLad office drawn on it.

As a congratulations to the Team GB medalists, Manchester Arndale invited Dave to create a bespoke map honouring the Olympians and the over 70 ‘Made in Manchester’ medals gained at Rio 2016.  Among those included in the mural were local newlyweds Jason Kenny and Laura Trott, at one of the city’s medal hubs, the Velodrome. Talking about the project, Dave commented, “I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world as an artist, but being able to produce something so unique at home as my biggest ever challenge is a real honour. I hope our athletes and visitors to the centre enjoy the mural and take a moment to appreciate Manchester’s amazing achievements.”

The Renaissance Hotel near Victoria Station has a mural from Dave in its lobby. When you go to a new city you buy a guide book, now guests can just pop down to the lobby and engage with the drawn map as they decide how to spend their day. General Manager of the Renaissance Manchester Cameron McNeillie said, “It’s turned out even better than we’d hoped. Dave has done an incredible job and has really captured the essence of the city. We hope that it will inspire our guest to go out and explore our city.”

There are now doodling master classes held at the Renaissance Hotel hosted by the master doodler himself. The next class will be held on April 20th, click here for more information and tickets.

Other locations where Dave’s work can be seen include MilkJam and Swalk Creative Presents on the third floor at Afflecks Palace. Also MCR Art gallery, the Royal Exchange Theatre shop, Salford Museum shop, Pad and Ziferblat.

You can follow Dave on Twitter @DaveDraws_and on Facebook and Instagram