Reply With QuoteIt looks awfully interesting! I'm very curious as to what you're going to do with it now! Have you considered digitizing it? Or are you going to keep working pen-on-paper?
(WIP) Durvrön Niras
Hi,
I'm new to the guild but this isn't my first upload. This is a work in progress on my second map Durvrön Niras (North Durvrön) from my world Pæsë.
Durvrön Niras is actually about 1500-2000 miles west of my first posted map Ædorn Drësirasar, which some on here have been interested in seeing more of my fictional world.
The landmass itself is roughly 2000 miles North to South, and about 700-800 miles wide. The entire map is going to be done on 18" x 24" paper.
This will be my second map but I have drawn and re drawn it many times, and all of my work is hand drawn without any digital editing. At this point I have the entire landmass drawn and out lined in blue ink along with rivers and lakes.
The first picture on here is actually a completely different map that I did almost 10 years ago when I was in my teens, but it was sort of my inspiration for Durvrön which is a focus for where my story takes place.
001 (3).JPG
8" x 11" First Draft
003.JPG
12" x 18" Second Draft (it's very difficult to see)
004 - Copy.JPG
12" x 18" Final Draft (I took the advice of coloring it, but to me it ruins it in a way. Except at that point I knew I would re draw in larger anyways.)
016.JPG
18" x 24" Final Draft (This is the final version in it's early stage with just the landmass and rivers.)
001 (2).JPG
Last edited by Master Rahl372; 02-01-2013 at 03:39 AM.
It looks awfully interesting! I'm very curious as to what you're going to do with it now! Have you considered digitizing it? Or are you going to keep working pen-on-paper?
Caenwyr Cartography
Check out my portfolio!
Thanks!Originally Posted by Caenwyr
I'm not sure at this point I want to digitalize everything, I tried using GIMP once but it seemed to daunting. I would like to scan everything at least but I need to get a scanner so I can try fiddling with maybe the fonts. Pen and paper seems much simpler to me, except I do realize the limitations of hand drawn like if I make a mistake.
Looks like an interesting project. I must say that I like the colour version of the map. Do you plan to try colouring the final version of it as well? I admire you for the many place names you have already put on your map. Do you have a background history of this world as well?
I don't plan on coloring the final version, but I do have use different colored fine tip pens for everything. That way there is color, but it's not overdoing it with the colored pencil. For example I just use green for forests, light green for swamp etc... so it's a bit simpler. As for my world I do have background history it's all in my head but at one point I did start writing some notes down which I'd like to go back over and edit to make more sense.
UPDATE:
Like I expected, next update is on schedule.
Here's the second portion of my map. All borders and country/capital names are finished.
The map right now is less than 50% complete, which will take another 2-3 weeks to finish.
I shifted some borders around from the original version, and if anyone notices, I actually changed a few of the letters to a more stylized look to keep things interesting.
One thing I will say is I am not too thrilled about how the lower right portion is with all of the rivers that feed into the south-east. This area is supposed to be a tropical/jungle region with mountains to the west with desert on the other side. I just don't like how the rivers and boundaries look; they just don't look natural to me. But what can I do right? Can't undo it without completely starting over.
007.JPG
Last edited by Master Rahl372; 12-15-2012 at 02:48 AM.
Don't know if this it what is subliminally bugging you, but the fact is that all your delightfully-random rivers and coastlines are about the same fractal degree. Think "same jaggy-ness". Too, none of the rivers or coasts indicate the mountains and valleys have any systematic arrangement. Sure, one would find SoMe totally random features. But there would also be mountain chains, ridges, linear valleys and such, as well as strings of islands. You'd also see at least some smooth curves along coasts and watercourses both .
There's a lot of good stuff going on too - you're definitely avoiding the mechanical- regularity of a schematic map. Maybe just need more variety.
Last edited by jbgibson; 12-14-2012 at 10:14 PM.
I think you're right when you say everything is really jaggedy; it's just something I have trouble avoiding when I go over the lines in pen. I now realize I should have done more smooth coastlines to even out the look of the map which I actually did do in a few places. However, the mountain placement isn't random since the mountain chain runs along nearly the entire western coastline due to plate tectonics. They're just not on there yet since that is the next step.
I'm not really sure what you mean by "avoiding the mechanical- regularity of a schematic map". I believe there is a lot of variety, you just have to check out my previously posted map, which will give you a good idea what the final map on this will look like since I use the same style. Maybe it's worth mentioning that the scale of the maps I do are continent sized, so more detailed features like valleys, canyons, etc... are not shown except large forests, plains, deserts, highlands.
UPDATE:
Just finished the mountains. I did draw hills/highlands alongside some parts of the mountains but I'm going to wait until I get all of the city names done first and probably draw some more physical features around the labels. I like how I draw mountains, but I'm thinking of doing a new style for my next map; not sure how but if anyone has suggestions that would be great.
Next step is labeling everything which takes the longest and is the least fun. I use http://http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/ Fantasy Name Generator for everything. I already have a basic idea of how the names will sound, but the generator works really well since it sort of speeds things up.
I can't upload the picture directly since it is 5.56mb, which is more than is allowed...? Oh well, Flickr works fine, plus there's tons of different sizes to choose from when viewing, but can someone tell me how to upload attached thumbnails?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6676989...n/photostream/
Last edited by Master Rahl372; 12-27-2012 at 05:18 PM.
Looks great so far! As for not having access to a scanner, you can do some quite cool stuff with a carefully taken photograph and GIMP or PS. I use it regularly, but for much, much smaller maps than you 24x18 planned masterpiece! Might still be worth looking into; there is at least one tutorial here on the Guild on cleaning up photographs of maps to use as the basis for digital work.
Your Flickr link is coming up as a private image over on Flickr - you probably need to change settings on the image.
You also had an extra "http" in front of the Fantasy Name Generator link - neat page, got that bookmarked for my own use, as I often struggle to come up with interesting names for places and people!
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