Hertfordshire-based Joshua estimates he has now made about 30 pictorial maps, depicting landscapes as diverse as the island of Ireland, Malaysia and Virginia.
“In medieval times people would draw the landscape from an oblique angle, I have really enjoyed bringing to life that old tradition.”
Tolkien remains his main inspiration.
“I grew up in High Wycombe and had no real idea as a child that we were actually that close to London,” he recalls.
“We would just go on picnics and to the countryside. It was a friend at school that introduced me to the books. Those stories became a symbol for home in a way, and friendship.
“That sort of stuff is quite a big theme in the books. The maps fascinated me as a boy, as a teenager.”
His labour of love, born out of misery, has also led to the discovery of new places.
“That’s the pleasure because I get to learn so much about a location, its culture, its history.
“I really enjoy visiting through the pen.”
One such location was the French Alps, which had been next on his list of places to visit prior to being hit by a car while cycling in south London.
“To finally visit and see the landscapes I had known so well from drawing them, but had never stayed in, that was a real pleasure.
“The blessing in disguise was that it [the crash] got me back into illustration and art.
“That was a silver lining of a rubbish accident.”