[WIP] World of Flammarion: The Known World

[Klaus van der Kroft]

I really like your style, your landmass, mountains and forest really have that "epic" feeling of a good map!
Congratulations, cant wait to see more of this.

Thank you very much, Carbus. I'm thoroughly glad you enjoy it. I'm kind of making the style up as I go, so I keep getting this nagging feel that the map lacks drawing consistency (for instance, you can notice how the mountains in the upper-left, which were the first ones I drew in this style, are darker than the ones on the right). Still, I'm having a lot of fun drawing this piece.

Thanks again!

[Eilathen]

Hmm...i'd say shaving

More seriously, i would not see this as forest, it looks more like steppe/grasland to my eyes.

[Diamond]

I like the forest; it's dense enough to show what it is even without labels, and then when you add those in, it'll be totally obvious what they are.

And this is a really gorgeous map, by the way.

[Schwarzkreuz]

I agree with Diamond, i realy enjoy to watch your progress on the map, and i wouldnt the the inconsitency as something bad, its also nice to see and rethinking your process within the map.

[Klaus van der Kroft]

Hey guys! Long time no see. I hope you've been doing great. As for myself, I just ate some amazing ribs.

Cartographically speaking, It's been a while since I've managed to dedicate proper time to map-related shenanigans, but I'm finally getting some sort of progress done with this thing.

I've been mostly experimenting with ways to get the geopolitical landscape drawn, but kept hitting a wall. Trial and error led me to this current model which, although I'm still tinkering with, is finally starting to look like what I'm after. The byzantine complexity of the various societies in Flammarion is proving to be a challenge to map, but God-willing I'll get there eventually.

Getting the names to stand out properly without breaking with the overall style of the map has also been an arduous task. I'm still not entirely convinced with what I'm using, but should work for the time being.

Here's a thumbnail version of the full map and a zoomed-in version of the area I've been focusing on so far.





About the Graticule: Flammarion is a flat world (a disk), so I figured I should use a polar graticule to represent its diskness. Now, I'm making stuff up as I go here, so maybe I'm using the wrong one. The reason I put it in such an odd place is because I'm trying to get the map drawn from the perspective of the local civilizations (which treat the city of Mesantos as the centre of the world; cities are not pictured yet, but said metropolis would be precisely where the graticule is centred), but I'm still left wondering if it looks appropriate. What do you think?

Credits: I used one of Gilgamec's fantastic blank graticules to get the one in the map. You can find them here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/ma...raticules.html

EDIT: Fixed the zoomed attachment. I forgot to pass the mountains through a sharpen filter before uploading (I draw using one of those hairy brushes in Photoshop, so it needs a bit of sharpening or it looks kind of blurry).

[vorropohaiah]

looking very nice!

[Viking]

I really like this Klaus! I hope to see it finished

[Klaus van der Kroft]

Thanks lads, much appreciated.

[- Max -]

Looks nice though I have some comments:
The fonts used don't really match together imho. The oes on the lads looks very fine but the ones used for seas kinda clashed with the first ones (and to be honest I think it'an overseen font on mapsé and not the best legible one, especially at small size). Also I'm wondering why you need some rhumb lines since you're using some graticules. using bith are quite confusing for me on the map.
Keep up the good job

[Klaus van der Kroft]

Looks nice though I have some comments:
The fonts used don't really match together imho. The oes on the lads looks very fine but the ones used for seas kinda clashed with the first ones (and to be honest I think it'an overseen font on mapsé and not the best legible one, especially at small size). Also I'm wondering why you need some rhumb lines since you're using some graticules. using bith are quite confusing for me on the map.
Keep up the good job

Thank you very much, Max.

About your comments:

-Fonts: Aye, I'm inclined to agree. Though I like Blackadder a lot as a font, as the time has progressed I've been growing less favourable of it, as it is very difficult to read in small size (and since I want to have every inlet and spit of land named in this thing eventually, it might end up looking bad). As for the difference in styles, I'm still not entirely decided on which fonts to use for the geopolitical landscape; the current ones are mostly placeholders to help me give shape to it, but they might end up changing soon.

-Lines: Well, technically they are not rhumb lines, as they are not following any specific geometrical orientation. They are more like referential portolan diagrams, I suppose. As for why together, on one hand there is the stylish aspect (I enjoy how they look), and on the other a practical aspect: Since Flammarion is flat and the centre depicted in this map is entirely subjective (anchored in an important cultural and political metropolis, but which is not exactly on the geographical axis of the disk), I figured the graticule alone would not be enough for navigation. After all, graticules and rhumb lines/portolan charts kept being used together for a while because the latter were still a popular method of navigations.