GPS drawing

To display their drawings Hugh Pryor wrote a computer program which convented the GPX data into a single line to be shown on screen or to be turned into an image file.

In many cities and towns the road layout and landscape restricts the routes available so artists have to find creative ways to show their pictures or characters.

In freehand GPS drawing, an artist creates a shape on open ground, air, or water without following existing paths.

Artists in cars and other motor vehicles can draw shapes on large open areas such as deserts, airfields, and beaches.

Freehand GPS drawing opens unlimited possibilities but without waypoints and existing routes it is very easy to lose track of your progress and make mistakes.

By pausing the GPS device and restarting it at different locations an artist is able to draw straight lines across the map in a similar way to a connect the dots puzzle.

GPS devices can also be given to people or attached to vehicles which are tracked as they go about normal life or take part in specific activities and the GPX data is then visualised.

[6] Most people use a route mapping app or other service to display their drawing online and to share on social media.

[7] In 1999, Reid Stowe was probably the first artist to employ waypoints on a GPS-verified journey in order to render a large-scale art object.

[12] The idea was first implemented on land by artists Hugh Pryor and Jeremy Wood, whose work includes a 13-mile wide fish in Oxfordshire, spiders with legs 21 miles long in Port Meadow, Oxford,[13] and "the world's biggest "IF'" with a total length is 537 km, and the height of the drawing in typographic units is 319,334,400 points.

In 2018 artist Nathan Rae created a #WeLoveManchester piece as part of the commemorations of the Manchester Arena Bombing.