Antique American Revolution Battle Map

Hello Folks,

This is my first post to this amazing forum. I have benefited greatly from all the tutorials and spent a lot of time learning tricks to develop the attached map.

I have developed a novelty/souvenir map for visitors to Lexington and Concord Massachusetts. The idea was to depict the events around the first battles of the revolution in a fun and engaging way. I tried to emulate the style of map makers from that era to give the illusion that it could have been created just after the war. The idea is to combine the artistry/style of this antique map http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Le..._of_Boston.jpg with the history and details of these maps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Concord_Retreat.png...I'm at the limit of my creative and technical skills and I lay it out now for more experienced feedback.

I began the map in PS 5 and upgrading to Elements 8 for some the text arcing features. I would love to get into CS but I will wait until I get a faster computer this spring. I look forward to any advice/feedback/tips

Thanks,
Pete
Attachment 22481

Wow thats some seriously nice work. The combined piece is really something. We have a Rep thing going around here so let me send some to you right off the cuff.

Those are pretty darn fine! I'd be proud to call those maps as finished myself, yet you say you're looking for feedback - what sort? So far all I have to respond with is "amazing!" :)

Absolutely beautiful! The only small crit I would add the map is that it lacks a British union flag with the words ' we let you win' next to it ;)

Seriously, I hope you decide to contribute more to the forum and make this style your own. It's gorgeous!

Have some rep from me too!

I have to say, I'm really happy to hear that our little guild is giving people the skills to make an income.

Apparently I can't give any more rep for the next 24 hours because I've given too much out already....so it wil have to wait :)

Welcome to the Guild!



Very Beautiful Map!

Indeed a very beautiful map. If you want to recreate the look of this era even more try to bring some more "talking elements" (don't know if this a common phrase in english). Remember that not too many people were able to read and so maps were richly illustrated with pictures of the things portrayed. So try to bring some troops in (especially tents to mark army camps).
If the map was not meant to be printed, sold and hanged on a wall I would suggest to age the paper background even more. But as you want to sell it as a tourist/souvenir map I would erase all the imperfections of the paper background to give it a nice and clean look (I would just give it a try for comparison reason).

Thank you very much for the feedback and praise and rep. Treppe, it is meant for sale (if I can package it properly and get local businesses to carry it...still a lot of work ahead)...so I very much appreciate your suggestions about the background and illustrations. I was planning on the addition of troops, regarding the background; do you think I should try a solid color or just reduce the imperfections?

If you want a resource to some great copyright free illustrations, check out Dover Books.

And by an amazing coincidence, one of our members, Perfect, has just posted this in the reference section.