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Thread: Unnamed Mercator World Map

  1. #1
    Community Leader Guild Sponsor Gidde's Avatar
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    Default Unnamed Mercator World Map

    My first project since the hard-drive-wipe. I'm inspired to do something along the lines of Mercator's 1569 World Map, but there's no way I'm going to get that kind of artistry out of it, so I'm going with a celtic knotwork border instead of the myriad of pictures he's got.

    I still haven't decided whether the final product will be actual ink-and-watercolor, or digital, so what I have so far is the plan for the knotwork, and part of the map layout. The greyscale nature is to facilitate tracing onto watercolor paper if I go that route; it's much easier to keep track of which lines are down if one uses a ball-point pen over a relatively light original (after coating the back with graphite).

    The world map is spliced together from a few different planetgen outputs; the poles are at equal scale to each other and in stereographic projection; the knotwork is hand-designed but cookie-cuttered into place, which is why it doesn't quite match up in some places. I'm rather proud of the fact that each piece is a single band (which is harder than I thought it would be to do).

    Still need to plan out the rhumb lines (which oddly, Mercator seemed to put in at random wherever he had room), fishies and ships and monsters, text areas, and the main cartouche. Oh, and the map itself lol. While I dither about whether I want to go analog or digital

    A final note: one of these days I'm going to finish a world map and be happy enough with it that it will actually go into a novel, so please don't use this (or what it evolves into) for anything but personal games and whatnot. Thanks!
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  2. #2

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    Wow, this sounds incredibly ambitious Gidde. I like the outline so far, and can't wait to see what you do with it. Kudos on the knot-work, I've attempted that before myself and you're right, it ain't easy!

    Cheers,
    -Arsheesh

  3. #3
    Community Leader Guild Sponsor Gidde's Avatar
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    Thanks Arsheesh!

    Last little bit before bed tonight: I took a stab at a kraken and colored in a piece of the knotwork to show the hubby what it would eventually look like.
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    That's a really gorgeous map you've got going there. I especially like the top views of the poles as well. Nice touch.

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    Community Leader Lukc's Avatar
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    It looks lovely! A fine start!

  6. #6

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    Unleash the kraken! A very nice start.

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    Guild Artisan Katto's Avatar
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    Looks like a good start, but I have seen the border in many other maps so far.
    Thanks for starting the thread, it reminds me in visiting the local Mercator exhibition.Sorry, german language.

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    Community Leader Guild Sponsor Gidde's Avatar
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    Cool link! As for the border, it's true; my first attempt was bound to be rather simple and therefore done before. So I knew I'd be reinventing the wheel, but it was a good learning experience. I'd like to think the polar inset breakage of the knotwork is somewhat fresh, but I'm sure that's been done too at some point!

  9. #9
    Guild Artisan Katto's Avatar
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    I don't want to afront you in any way Gidde, but it is the style I like most. And I know you will have to spend much (very, very) time into that map, so it should be unique.

  10. #10
    Community Leader Guild Sponsor Gidde's Avatar
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    Oh I wasn't affronted, just acknowledging the well-made point Also, as I stare at the map I may end up improving the knotwork over time.

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