[WIP] Omandra - fantasy map

[JonPin]

Hi, I new here. I've been doing graphical design for a while, and playing role-playing games for twice as long. It seems only natural that the two converge at some point. A few years ago I started doing my own maps, and it just spiraled out of control.

This is a WIP of a redesign of an old map. It's 40 x 68 cm (aprox. 16 by 27 inches), 300dpi. The image here is 50% size. I want the map to look like the world maps from the late 18th century and early 19th. The map is far from done. I've just started with the rivers. What do you guys think about them?

WIP Myomandra.jpg

[Ilanthar]

Nice start! And a very aquatic world I would say. It's a bit hard to comment on your rivers without mountains, but otherwise it looks fine to me.

I think your double lined tropics are a "cutting" or "overlapping" too much the lands and I would go for a simple line.

[JonPin]

The world was used for my pirate themed campaign for 4th edition d&d. Somebody have an idea what so much sea would do to the atmosphere? And the islands are mostly of volcanic origin. So many volcanos would make the greenhouse effect more evident than on earth maybe... What about the tides? A friend told me that tides are bigger on shores of oceans. Ideas are welcome

I just added the paper texture, some color tweaking, and started naming the islands. As for the mountains... Not many world maps from the 18th century have mountain ranges. Perhaps I will do only a few simple ranges on larger islands. For the rivers I decided that less is more, but I'm not completely pleased with them yet. Will wait for the names and mountains and revisit them then.

WIP Myomandra_2.jpg

[ngm132]

The world was used for my pirate themed campaign for 4th edition d&d. Somebody have an idea what so much sea would do to the atmosphere? And the islands are mostly of volcanic origin. So many volcanos would make the greenhouse effect more evident than on earth maybe... What about the tides? A friend told me that tides are bigger on shores of oceans. Ideas are welcome

I just added the paper texture, some color tweaking, and started naming the islands. As for the mountains... Not many world maps from the 18th century have mountain ranges. Perhaps I will do only a few simple ranges on larger islands. For the rivers I decided that less is more, but I'm not completely pleased with them yet. Will wait for the names and mountains and revisit them then.

WIP Myomandra_2.jpg

I'm not a geologist so take this with a grain of salt but I think greenhouse gasses are good for atmospheric evolution. It's the runaway greenhouse effect that we have to watch out for. Initially the greenhouse gasses help to set up the right mixture of oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen (among others) in the atmosphere. The plentiful ocean on our planet enabled the atmosphere to develop a water recycling system with evaporation and precipitation. So I would imagine the oceans on your world would perform the same. You might have some wild weather since ocean temperature controls weather. Your pirates would have to be some brave dudes. Your map is great! I love that you posted the stages as you went along. Really inspiring!!

[- Max -]

The map lacks some light aged/distressed effects (on linework, coastal lines etc.) to be really convincing for a 18th century look.

[Diamond]

That looks really nice! I like where you're going with it.

[NedS298]

I wish my first post could have been that good. I really like maps like this, and it's clean and stylish despite lacking in the features one might expect of an "eighteenth-century" map. Good work. My question is, how did you make it?

[JonPin]

It's still missing a lot. I need to draw the cartouche, the ornaments, I may still play around with the proportions of the frame a bit... I made the geometry with AutoCAD, but I guess it can be done with illustrator as well. Still a lot of work guys.

[Lingon]

Very nice! I agree with Max about aging the linework, but I really like what you have so far.

[Schwarzkreuz]

As third in line, I also surgest more aged linework, so the map gets more atmosphere.