In Yuko Shimizu’s piece for Mother Jone’s magazine she used Google Maps as her reference. She mentions that with Google Maps she was able to digitally walk around and get reference of the buildings. This made it easier for her because she said that she wouldn’t have to sit somewhere for hours at a time and let other people see her rough sketches. With Google Maps Yuko was also able to get references of buildings that photographs or other images couldn’t get. This allowed her more freedom to move around and work on her project. Yuko used Google Maps to guide her during her drawing phase. She says that she was literately drawing while walking around in Google Maps. Lastly, she also used characters in her illustrations. Yuko mentioned one for her students and was inspired to draw a character like her. I don’t know if this would count as reference or inspiration but either way the illustration came out really well.