To be updated...
Collecting references for this and future pieces.
Harenova:
Ancient Arabia Map Fragment?
Pascaerte van 't Westelycke Deel van Oost Indien, van Cabo de Bona Esperanca, tot C. Comorin
Islandia
Der Berg Sinai
Macrobian world map, 10th century (For the text...)
Discworld
The Rift:
Antique map of Anemographica by Lotter
Planetae et Radiationes In Cancri Dodecatemorio
Scenographia Systematis Copernicani
Non-Map Inspirations:
The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch
Islamic Illuminated Manuscript 1
Tabernacle world view in the Christian Topography 6th century -- WHAT IS THIS? WHY IS IT SO AWESOME? THE MOUNTAIN IS IN A BOX.
"Bootleg Disney World" -- Dat castle.
Informational:
Free Relief Layers for Google Maps
Fonts:
Unicase -- Simple. Easy to read. Calligraphic.
Masonic Tattegrain -- Beautiful. Not gonna use, but gives me an idea of what I'd like
Intellecta Monograms -- Whaaaaaat the???
CF Nelson Old -- Ooooh! I like the sketchy geometric look.
Aesthetic:
Japanese (?) Map -- For the aged, folded look...!
As for my map... I'm going to start sketching out rivers (will update this same post with a new image later today). When that is finished, I'll start a new document entirely to create a more detailed version of the coastline. Then I'll start working on the composition for the border and informational legends, compasses, n stuff.
EDIT: After looking through all of the strange curiosities of maps from the medieval era and how esoteric they feel with their lack of knowledge and strange illustrations. I'm starting to feel as though I should take a more unconventional approach to the map I have so far. I find myself asking the same question over and over: What if the world really was flat? What if the sea was endless? While that might be back-tracking on my part, I don't mind. Like I said in my first post, I've been working on this idea for two years and I have often turned back on decisions that didn't feel right until I found one that fit... like a proper piece in a puzzle. Certainly I need to compromise some realism for the sake of emotional and psychological aesthetic.
Discworld works, doesn't it?
I've always wanted to ground myself in some sort of realism, but I can't forget that this is a fantasy world. I want to invoke that feeling I get when I look at ancient maps. The feeling of this is what people really believed. Extraplanar forces were presumed to be in control of worldly, natural phenomena. That monsters roamed the sea and devoured ships. Certainly some of those things exist and while I would like for there to exist some "advanced" technology (sandmobiles, mechanical monsters, etc. -- the sort of things reserved for aristocracy who had either studied the creation of such things or commissioned them) there is a certain amount of unknowing I'd like for my audience to comprehend. Like the whole thing is essentially ouroboros or a mobius ring.
It's a bit of a far stretch to make, but I think I may be able to make something elegant and strange if I work at it. I'll experiment with what I've got now.
To illustrate what I mean, I need to point out that the initial inspiration for my little pet project of two years was Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and ultimately his map of Hell. Harenova used to be called -- in its entirety -- Tartarus, but I figured that was absolutely absurd and far too forward. As I strayed away from the biblical fan-fiction and started to study mythology and theologies, the story veered away from the polarization of good and evil and toward the ambiguous, eastern philosophy that everything is connected. There's no doubt that Dante's Inferno left a dream-like vision in my mind that I would like to achieve.
Bah, what is this, my blog?!
Something like this... I'm going to reduce the size of some continents and enlarge others. Tartaros is absolutely too large.
tl;dr -- Vagabondage is thinking and trying to be an "artistic" hipster in her endeavors.
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