SITTING among a sea of football grounds is Valley Parade.
The Bradford City ground is one of more than 100 football grounds across Britain captured on a fascinating hand-drawn map by artist Ben Staves.
Home or Away? Football Grounds of Great Britain features venues from Ross County FC in the north of Scotland to Plymouth Argyle on the Devon Coast, and east from Carrow Road home of Norwich City, to Swansea’s Liberty Stadium in the west.
The neighbouring West Yorkshire grounds of Elland Road, home to Leeds United and The John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield, also appear on this fascinating map, which can be bought from Ben’s website stavesart.com.
Ben also homes in on individual stadiums such as Ibrox in Glasgow and Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.
As well as his football stadium maps, Ben is well-known for city globes - 3D bird’s-eye views of of streets, buildings and other landmarks.
Ben began drawing cities in the 3D globe style started when he was a student. “I studied architecture at Northumbria University in Newcastle," he says. "One of the very first tasks we were set by our tutors was to draw the city in an unusual way, the idea being to get the students to think about different ways in which you could portray the urban landscape. I wanted to find a way to draw the road layout of the city from above but also include the facades of all the buildings too, so using a single point of perspective to create a fisheye lens-style image worked quite well.”
Newcastle was the first city he turned into a little world. "After that first one I quickly moved on to drawing my hometown Leeds and other Yorkshire cities including York and Sheffield. I would love to do some more Yorkshire locations too, I’ve had plans for some time for Bradford, Halifax, Scarborough, Whitby and more.
“I get asked all the time about a Bradford globe and I think it would be a great one to do - with so much history in the city as well as some incredible architecture on display I think Bradford would be a fantastic addition to the collection.”
Ben’s city globes, which sell as artwork and greeting cards, range from capitals such as London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin, Paris, Rome and Canberra.
Other cities across the world include New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Dubai and Doha.
Harrogate, Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Oxford, Cambridge and Durham are among the British towns and cities featuring in the collection.
Based in the North-East, he began focussing on football stadiums a few years ago. “I thought it might be interesting to zoom in on the home grounds of football clubs and see how that would work with the unusual perspective. They have become very popular - I think any artwork that people have a connection with can really add meaning to it.”
Mapping the grounds across England, Scotland and Wales was tricky to plan out, he says. “There are more than 100 different football grounds included in the piece with teams represented throughout the football league. In amongst the stadiums there are also the landmarks of all the major cities too, so a lot of work went into this one.”
He has also drawn cricket grounds across England, Home Nations rugby grounds and European F1 circuits.
Ben’s architectural training has helped with his designs. “The drawing skills I picked up through my time in Newcastle and then afterwards when working in practice were an essential part of being able to create the artwork I do today. I focused a lot on hand drawing as opposed to digital computer-based design programmes, so it definitely helped.”
He adds: “I’ve always had an interest in cities and how they have been designed. I find it fascinating going to places like York or London where you can clearly see how the streets and buildings have changed over time - that mix of old historic houses down twisting streets alongside modern open plazas and unusual architecture is something I’ve always enjoyed studying and sketching.”
City globes can take from two to three weeks up to two to three months to complete. “It depends on the size of the original piece and the complexity of the city I’m drawing," he explains. “The sporting venues around the UK have been my biggest and most time-consuming pieces, each one taking around three to four months to complete.”
He uses pen and ink for the original drawings. “The colour is done digitally - once I’ve finished the drawing, I scan the artwork into the computer then colour it using a drawing tablet. After working on something for hundreds of hours I would be terrified of going anywhere near it with paint so working on the colour via a computer means that if I make a mistake, I can erase it without ruining the original.”
As well as a regular spot at Shambles Market in York Ben has this year displayed his work at many travel shows, art fairs and food festivals including the Great Yorkshire Show and the Art in the Pen exhibition in Skipton.
*stavesart.com; Shambles Market, York.
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