Greetings, Lekeila! What sort of tips are you after?
And welcome to the Guild (albeit for only a short time!).
Hello. First off I'll state simply that, although I think map-making is awesome, I am not a cartography enthusiast, I am a book author. I write fictional stories. Recently I had the idea to have a story with a young cartographer apprentice and so I am on a search for a knowledgeable person to help me out with tips if at all possible. I am sorry to say that I have no intention of staying on this site for long as I have had experience with forums and I am aware that they are huge time-consumers. My apologies to the admin/s of this site, I hope you understand . . . but it looks to me like you already have plenty of active members.
So, I’ll wrap up by saying: greetings to you from the writer's world.
Greetings, Lekeila! What sort of tips are you after?
And welcome to the Guild (albeit for only a short time!).
Okay, well . . .
The young man is an apprentice as I’ve already noted. As close as I can come to time period would be the middle ages. They have very little technology in his world. I’m basically trying to figure out how a young cartographer such as him would learn. How would they make maps and such in a time when they have so little technology? He has things like drawing compasses and such – sorry, I’ve never been too great with giving information like this. He lives with his little sister in a cabin he built himself that’s a bit secluded from the rest of the world. He walks to the nearest village where a cartographer owns a shop, that’s where he receives his training on cartography.
Does that help?
I'm not a cartographer, I am an author. Please don't ask me any questions. Thank you.
Welcome Lekeila! You can stick around as long as you like. Do you have plans to make some maps your self, or are you looking for someone to make a map for you? If the former, have you thought about how you plan to make the map in terms of specific software, just hand drawn, or whatever? If the latter, then post to the requests forum. Generally, the smaller and less picky you are (and the world is interesting!) the more likely someone will have time to do free work. The larger the requirements, the more likely it will require payment.
What exactly are you looking for? If you are not 100% sure, just browse the site and try to find a few good examples that fit the style you might like, keeping the above stuff in mind. Generally, old world maps of a hand drawn style are easier for new people to do, so you may want to start your search in that area.
And who knows, you may actually become a regular here anyway!
Joe
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
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Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
It's the latter, thank you. I have actually posted a request and I'm fairly excited for the possibility of someone being interested. I will be sure to explore this site more thoroughly when I have the time on my hands.
I'm not a cartographer, I am an author. Please don't ask me any questions. Thank you.
Welcome Lekeila. May your stay be longer than you anticipated. Have a stroll around, take in the atmosphere, you never know.
Torq
The internet! It\'ll never catch on.
Software Used: Terranoise, Wilbur, Terragen, The Gimp, Inkscape, Mojoworld
I was poking around on the internets a few months back looking for medieval measurements and found that they used things like hands, spans, rods, chains, cubits, hectares, leagues, etc. and I also remember tools like sextants, Viking sundials, weighted lines (for measuring fathoms). I don't remember where I found that stuff but I've watched many History Channel shows on Vikings and such and they cover some of those basic navigation things. Now those things all cover navigation and measuring distances, I guess, but as for specific tools used in actually drawing maps, well, that hasn't really changed all that much: vellum or parchment, pen and ink, straightedges, compasses, basic math skills, and someone to stand over you and say things like "that's terrible, do it over" Oh and there were also some specific kinds of crystals that glowed when facing directly north when the sun was out and were cloudy when facing some other direction. Maybe a rudimentary knowledge of lodestones was also in use not to mention astronomy, and knowledge of currents and wind.
Last edited by Ascension; 06-20-2008 at 03:35 PM. Reason: addendum
And copying.
I think most apprentices would spend a lot of time copying their master's maps to get skill with the drawing tools, inks, etc. Probably very little "new map" work.
-Rob A>
My tutorials: Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional Map ~ All My Tutorials
My GIMP Scripts: Rotating Brush ~ Gradient from Image ~ Mosaic Tile Helper ~ Random Density Map ~ Subterranean Map Prettier ~ Tapered Stroke Path ~ Random Rotate Floating Layer ~ Batch Image to Pattern ~ Better Seamless Tiles ~ Tile Shuffle ~ Scale Pattern ~ Grid of Guides ~ Fractalize path ~ Label Points
My Maps: Finished Maps ~ Challenge Entries ~ My Portfolio: www.cartocopia.com
Oh, thank you, thank you! That's a lot of help, Ascension, and you just saved me a ton of research. Thanks to you to, RobA. Copying is great.
I'm not a cartographer, I am an author. Please don't ask me any questions. Thank you.
In those days (in England at any rate) they would measure distances by paces - there was no standardisation of long distances - which is where we get the yard (the length of a man's stride) I believe (but I'm not sure) that roods and other greater distance measures were taken from this. Hedges were grown and ditches dug to determine boundaries...and there's more but I need to look into my books and get back to you.