North America, a long time ago

[Lingon]

Thanks, Chashio!

I've been researching pterosaurs a little, they are pretty hilarious. It'll almost be hard to paint one without making it look like a caricature. But I've done some sketches of that, and flowers for a literal compass rose – which is even harder for someone who's never painted a flower… I'll put them up here once I reach something I'm not ashamed of

[Lingon]

A couple of attempts:


The little birdie is supposed to be a Quetzalcoatlus (who came up with that name?), which lived roughly in the area I'm depicting, roughly during the time period I chose. The flowers are… well, I don't remember them all, but a few are roses as that seemed appropriate for a compass rose. Though I couldn't find any info about whether they existed 90 million years ago or not. Probably not. I think I'll use one anyway, mostly because the thorns* make such good arrows. Also, my surfing history is now filled with flowers.

*I learned today that they are not really thorns, but prickles. And the Quetzal was of course no bird. The T-Rex was a bird, though.

[vorropohaiah]

Quetzalcoatlus (who came up with that name?]

the Mayans/Aztecs makes a nice change seeing a quetzocatlus flying and not looking like a giraffe...

[killiuswhisperwind]

realize this comment might be a little late, but if your looking for dinosaurs, on the map why not go from the theme of sea monsters, and place a pleseasaur i know i spelled that wrong but its the loch ness monster
in the water some where?

[Lingon]

@Vorro (can I call you Vorro?)
Yeah, I know it's a god in one of the native american cultures, but then someone thought it was a good idea to put that name on one of the most badass/hilarious creatures that lived, one that you'll obviously want to talk about a lot, but because of the name, people just go "what…?" when I bring it up. It should be called something more catchy!

@Killius
I was thinking of that, actually. But I decided a pterosaur would be more unique.


I other news (if it can be considered news), I'm almost finished with the commission so this map will be picking up pace again soon.

[Lingon]

Well, I got some time over, and drew the rose, Quetzal and title scroll onto the map. Just the faint pencil lines so far, but I think they are visible enough:


I think the scroll will say something like "NORTH AMERICA", and then in smaller letters below, "cretaceous period", but I'm not sure. I might end up writing it in Swedish instead, my first language, that would make more sense if I'm gonna keep the map, but I'm considering putting it up on Ebay and see if there's some interest there, and then it'd have to be in English. I'll procrastinate the decision for a bit

[WillP]

I like your compass rose. It is a very unique take on an iconic cartographic feature.

Of course, as I look at it more, the points N,W,E together with the rose look something like the Klingon crest.

[Lingon]

Thanks! I actually had to google the Klingon crest, but yeah, it's rather similar!

I'm waiting for a reply from my client to be able to proceed with the commission map, so I sat down and colored the icons on this one today. Also inked the graticule and wrote the title, which I decided to do in Swedish. I don't think it'd have fetched enough on Ebay to be worth it anyway. The text says North America, Cretaceous period, Turonian, approximately 90 million years ago.


And then… I guess this is finished. There's surely something ugly I've glanced over, I tend to get a bit blind when I paint and filter out the mistakes from what I see, but I'm overall not happy with this map anyway, it didn't work out style-wise, so I don't think I'll fiddle with it any more. I'll just view it as an experiment

[Schwarzkreuz]

The Dinosour and the rose fits well in the overall colorsheme. I only wonder about Forests so far north

[Chashio]

Next time maybe paint the graticule more lightly, use a more limited palette or use more colors to shade each item of the map to make it more lively and balanced (color-wise) from one edge to the other... and make use of a border so it looks more contained and you can get some empty space around the edges without the graticule overlapping it. And make the dino bigger, or line the bottom edge of the map with a landscape scene incorporating a few dinos That's likely what I would experiment with next if I'd made this one. It's been great watching it progress and I love your choice of locale and time period, and the medium! Out of curiosity, where is Maine/New England located on this map?