Who is planning on being at the CG Gallery Showing?

[Steel General]

Neat stuff...

[Redrobes]

Hey Torstan those pics are great. Well done for all the work you put into this. Got a little shot of my poster there... awwww

But look on the left panel full of text !??!!. I was asked a few questions about my maps and stuff to get some quotes - the blurb. One question I was asked was this:

"Are you inspired by old maps? Which/why?"

Here is my response...
"Definitely. The ones of our earth made before satellites and aircraft are intriguing. The techniques to map areas that you cant see in one view are interesting. The stories of people carrying 18 feet glass rods across the heaths and looking at Jupiters moons to get accurate maps are worth looking into."

Here is the quote attributed to me...
"I heard a story once about cartographers trekking into the countryside with 18 foot glass rods so that they could look at Jupiters moons and map them - I'm not sure what they were doing exactly, but it's so intriguing."

Err... No !... What ?.... Mapping Jupiter's moons ?!!?! Now I feel sorry for those famous people who have to give sound-bites to promote their work.

Oh well. Anyway - really great to be part of it and hope it goes well and is a financial success for the gallery as well. It would be interesting to know how many maps sell from a gallery show like this. If it works out and everyone is happy then we could do this now and again - like annually. And we can keep it in the back of our minds when making a map that there might be a possibility of showing it so we could do non CC-NC ones high res every so often.

[Gidde]

Err... No !... What ?.... Mapping Jupiter's moons ?!!?! Now I feel sorry for those famous people who have to give sound-bites to promote their work.

Bet you didn't know that was Rita Skeeter in disguise

[Redrobes]

It was when my cursor turned into a floating quill that I had a suspicion something was going on...

[Ascension]

Oh dear lord, I wrote a really long-winded reply (go figure, I'm always long-winded) for that blurb thingy. I can only imagine what's going to show up. I think I just made myself look like a huge dumbass. Oh well, vive la difference.

[mearrin69]

Oh dear...I wonder what my Q&A will say? I can't believe they changed your quote to that degree. LOL. For the record, here's what I gave:

> Do you remember looking at fantasy maps as a child?
Fantasy maps came later. I was always drawn to diagrams of any sort, really, whether it was Billy's footprints around the neighborhood in the Family Circus comic strip or the anatomy picture in the World Book encyclopedia I had. I used to spend a lot of times looking at my grandfather's world atlas, imagining what those places were like.

> What was your most significant memory/significant map?
Definitely the map of Middle Earth in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

> Why did you start drawing fantasy maps (I'm looking for inspiration here not
> "because my friend asked me to" - unless it's a funny story...)

I got interested in Dungeons and Dragons when I was 11 or so and started drawing maps for that. They were mostly just ink and colored pencil on graph paper. A couple of years later I had gotten some nib pens with calligraphy tips and decided to do a full-sized copy of the Tolkien map. My grandfather was a printer so I had access to some pretty large sheets of paper, even some that resembled parchment. It was a natural fit...and the map turned out pretty well, even though I was only about 13 at the time.

> What do you think about when you start drawing a map - geography? art?
> mechanics? colour palette? the story?

I'd say story. The fantasy/sci-fi maps I've made have usually had a purpose so their design has to reflect that. Sometimes I get interested in a particular shape or palette or style and I'll work that in but the main driver is usually story.

> What's your favourite kind of map to draw?
City maps. There are so many ways to do them and so many opportunities to create detail at all levels of the map, from the overall design and the way the city interacts with the surrounding terrain to the details of some particular back alley.

> Are you inspired by old maps? Which/why?
Definitely, although I'm not sure I'd ever try to emulate the styles in anything I do. I love looking at old maps, though.

[Sapiento]

A little frantic - turns out that the screen software needed to be in a specific format, but that particular format was hard to track down. Reformatting over an hour of video clips to get it working took a bit of time (and the loan of one of the better department computers!). All good now.

So here, as promised, are a couple of photos!

That's simply great!

[torstan]

Oh no! I'll take a look through those to make sure no one comes out badly. I can see why that quote caused confusion - as 'looking at Jupiters moons to get accurate maps' does sound like you're talking about mapping Jupiter's moons. I'll fix it to make sure it carries your actual meaning. Sorry that one slipped through.

Othewise things are good. We've had some requests for prints from people who don't live in NY but know some of the maps in the show. I'm looking into that with the gallery to see whether they're able to do their limited edition prints and mail them. I don't see a problem directly, but I'll post more when we know if it's possible.

[Gidde]

Haha, mine were all very short and sweet, hopefully they don't change too much

[Jaxilon]

Makes a case for talking crazy so they can't make any sense of what you are saying that way it doesn't really matter what they quote you just seem eccentric and odd - people love that in artists. Hehe.