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  1. #1

    Wip WIP - The World of Ascadia

    As a follow-up to my hand drawn regional map here I am also making a world map (for a different trilogy-in-progress) for the same author.

    This was based on a rough sketch of the continent shape, inland sea locations, and political boundaries. I threw in terrain features to help explain the political boundaries, and bounced ideas back and forth with the author, coming up with this draft:
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Agreeing on that, I have started the final map. It will need to be B&W suitable for printing. This has been done completely in Inkscape so far, making extensive use of the tapering river technique I posted in the tutorial section. (Here I differenced them out of the main continent shape):
    Click image for larger version. 

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    View full size (2000x3000) as the rescaled pop-up doesn't do it justice.

    Next comes terrain features...

    -Rob A>

  2. #2
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    Very nice start. Can't wait to see more. Question on this for the printing: Does it have to be straight black and white, or can there be a couple of shades of grayscale in there as well?

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Badger's Avatar
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    Couldn't help it rob... but...

    that looks an awfully lot like;
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  4. #4

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    @Del - Funny stuff! I didn't think of that. I was thinking more of a "Timmy the Tooth" kind of thing.

    @Joe - Not a clue! I assume books are all printed with offset printing. I have no idea if they can reproduce grayscale, or would be dithered B&W. I'm working on the latter assumption, but that could be wrong. Maybe a printer, publisher or author would know the answer!

    -Rob A>

  5. #5

    Post It depends

    It really depends. For most books, B/W without grayscale is what you can expect - in order to keep the price down.

    However, an illustrated book (coffee table book, book of maps, etc.) full color and grayscale and be easily printed, but these books as substantially more cost to print.

    If you're talking about typical fantasy literature that comes in hardback then to paper back, B/W is all you can expect.

    Compare this to full color magazines. You'd think the cover price of $3 to $5 covers the cost of printing. This is not true. Most full color magazines cost $10 - $20 to print each. The advertising placed inside the magazine actually pays for the printing cost. The cover price only helps defray the cost of distribution. Full color printing for books are very, very expensive. Print-on-demand is essentially printing full color with a color copier/printer for short run, costs are still high, but actually not as high as if they were printed on offset printers for large distribution.

    GP
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  6. #6

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    Thanks GP. The indication is it will be a typical fantasy hardcover, so B&W offset.
    Size was passed on to me as:
    Final print size will (hopefully) be standard hardcover, which is 15cm x 22cm pages, so with margins, we are looking at roughly 13x20 cm (roughly 5"x8")
    What would you suggest the resolution of the image be for good B&W printing? My current image is sitting at 200dpi.

    -Rob A>

  7. #7
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    I think it looks fantastic.

    When I read the description you provided, the first thing I thought of was the way they drew cantons, mesas etc. in the old Looney Toons cartoons (especially the Road Runner).
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    Secret Super-User StillCypher's Avatar
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    That mesa/canyon area is looking most excellent! I really like it. The trees, however... At the risk of sounding completely irreverent, the first thing that came to mind when I saw them was, "Oh, my! Balloons!"

  9. #9

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    I don't know... It is for a book, too so a lot of detail will get lost I think.

    The real detail terrain-wise still to add is marshland in the north and a jungle on the south east. Then political boundaries and labels.

    Maybe cities, but I haven't been given that information yet.

    - Rob A>

  10. #10
    Community Leader Facebook Connected torstan's Avatar
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    I like it. I'm not sure how much the detail will survive the translation into the book format itself as Del mentioned. I like the escarpment to the east - that's a rather nice piece of artwork in itself.

    I am a little curious as to why all the mountains have the shallow slop to the east and the sharp climb to the west I'm guessing this is just an artifact of the handedness of the artist.

    I'm not crazy about the mid grey for the sea. It reminds me a bit too much of bad black and white Mac games from the late 80s - but that's just personal. I think the ripples would tell the viewer that was the sea without the need for the block of mid-grey. Anyway, as I said, that's just personal preference.

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