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  1. #1
    Guild Adept TimPaul's Avatar
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    Post Map for Dance of Cloaks

    I was hired to do a black and white map for the David Dalglish novel, A Dance of Cloaks. Here is the finished map.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    They Orbit Books had a nice write up about it in their blog series, The Making of a Cover.

    thanks!

  2. #2

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    Very nice map, I really like the style. Interesting write-up on it too, thanks for sharing.

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    Guild Adept Viking's Avatar
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    Nice work. I am sure the author was very happy with it
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    Guild Adept TimPaul's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Viking View Post
    Nice work. I am sure the author was very happy with it
    Thank you.

    He was. He said he was going to rub it in his other author friends face. I just finished the map and sent it in for the second book. I can't show that one yet. I'm hoping I do the map for the third book.

  5. #5

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    Fine job!

    That's the kind of map I'm expecting when I open a fantasy novel.

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    Guild Adept TimPaul's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ilanthar View Post
    Fine job!

    That's the kind of map I'm expecting when I open a fantasy novel.
    Thanks. I loved these kinds of maps as well, when I opened a book.

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    Guild Expert Eilathen's Avatar
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    Well, i for one am glad that this will be a book with a map ... no seriously, what's with all the fantasy books that have no map?!

    As for the map itself...it surely is well done. So good work, Tim.
    BUT... there are some river issues (i am sure not the cartographer's fault) and the shape is just...sorry...boring. I mean as i said, i appreciate every author who at least puts in a map. But sometimes i have to wonder why almost all authors can only come up with such uninspired landforms. Oh well... (Again, this is not a critic pointed towards the mapper! I'm just venting a little fantasy map frustration here...sorry Tim ).
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    Guild Adept TimPaul's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eilathen View Post
    Well, i for one am glad that this will be a book with a map ... no seriously, what's with all the fantasy books that have no map?!

    As for the map itself...it surely is well done. So good work, Tim.
    BUT... there are some river issues (i am sure not the cartographer's fault) and the shape is just...sorry...boring. I mean as i said, i appreciate every author who at least puts in a map. But sometimes i have to wonder why almost all authors can only come up with such uninspired landforms. Oh well... (Again, this is not a critic pointed towards the mapper! I'm just venting a little fantasy map frustration here...sorry Tim ).
    Do you mean how straight the rivers tend to be for this?

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by TimPaul View Post
    Do you mean how straight the rivers tend to be for this?
    Actually I posted a response to that article you linked describing this book and your map - but it's still awaiting moderation before it's posted. My post to that article regards the "river issues in your map". (Note: I am a member of the River Police - look beneath my avatar name).

    The river system to the west side of your map has a general north to south flow, however, several of the tributaries seem to be flowing backwards and merge with the main river from the wrong direction - I see a half dozen examples of backwards pointing tributaries on that river system. Also, though large rivers can form deltas as the river nears the sea, your delta seems expansively large, almost too large - the rivers are splitting away from the coast too far away from the coast, though this is still possible, so I'm not trying to be overly critical.

    Of the river system to the east, there's a similar too big a delta situation here as well, but more critical you have a river reaching the sea significantly north of the 2 rivers of the delta. If this were the case the entire river would flow into the sea at this point and not continue southward to split into 2 more rivers reaching the sea. Generally except in river deltas, a river can only reach the sea at one exit.

    A river delta occurs when the land near the coast is extremely flat, the river slows down it's pace and detritus in the water begins to settle on the river floor building up and eventually pushing the river to one side or the other starting another channel. This is what causes multiple channels to appear in a river delta.

    Since your map has been accepted by the author and publisher, there probably isn't a need to fix the rivers for publication, but for geologic/geographic authenticity you should use correct river formations in any published map. Unless the author is specifically ruling that the storyline requires unrealistic geographic formations, there should be no reason not to get the rivers correct.

    We've got several threads in this forum discussing issues with river systems, as "rivers" of all geologic formations seems to be the one that most often have problems with inexperienced cartographers.

    Aside from the river issues, though, this is a pretty map!
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  10. #10
    Guild Adept TimPaul's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gamerprinter View Post
    Actually I posted a response to that article you linked describing this book and your map - but it's still awaiting moderation before it's posted. My post to that article regards the "river issues in your map". (Note: I am a member of the River Police - look beneath my avatar name).

    The river system to the west side of your map has a general north to south flow, however, several of the tributaries seem to be flowing backwards and merge with the main river from the wrong direction - I see a half dozen examples of backwards pointing tributaries on that river system. Also, though large rivers can form deltas as the river nears the sea, your delta seems expansively large, almost too large - the rivers are splitting away from the coast too far away from the coast, though this is still possible, so I'm not trying to be overly critical.

    Of the river system to the east, there's a similar too big a delta situation here as well, but more critical you have a river reaching the sea significantly north of the 2 rivers of the delta. If this were the case the entire river would flow into the sea at this point and not continue southward to split into 2 more rivers reaching the sea. Generally except in river deltas, a river can only reach the sea at one exit.

    A river delta occurs when the land near the coast is extremely flat, the river slows down it's pace and detritus in the water begins to settle on the river floor building up and eventually pushing the river to one side or the other starting another channel. This is what causes multiple channels to appear in a river delta.

    Since your map has been accepted by the author and publisher, there probably isn't a need to fix the rivers for publication, but for geologic/geographic authenticity you should use correct river formations in any published map. Unless the author is specifically ruling that the storyline requires unrealistic geographic formations, there should be no reason not to get the rivers correct.

    We've got several threads in this forum discussing issues with river systems, as "rivers" of all geologic formations seems to be the one that most often have problems with inexperienced cartographers.

    Aside from the river issues, though, this is a pretty map!


    The placement of everything was provided to me by the author, so there's very little room for me to change his vision. I was asked to make a darker, grittier map fitting of the novels main character being an assassin.

    I think there's not enough geographic information to really say what's fully going on in some areas. All we really see is coast, rivers, mountains and hills. There was no distance scale provided either, so that's another factor. Are we dealing with a few miles, or many miles?

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