The island Antillia

[Lingon]

It's been some time since I made a map for myself now… After the globe, I made a small test piece for a bigger map, but I feel that I need to flesh out that world more before I make the map, so I've began a smaller project that doesn't need much flesh at all

I recently read an interesting article about phantom islands; islands that where believed to exist and where shown on maps for a long period, but actually wasn't anything else than optical illusions or just lies or jokes. One of the bigger was called Antillia and was included on most maps from the 15th to the 17th century, and was located roughly in the middle of the Atlantic, directly west of the Iberian peninsula and similar in size and shape to Portugal. And because I love mysterious, disappearing islands (who doesn't?) and alternative history, I got an urge to map it.

I'll aim for something more modern and realistic than my usual style this time, I think. A pre-digital 20th century atlas look, hopefully. I've had this 1940's Japanese map saved for inspiration for a while, and I think I'll use that style as a starting point.

For some unnecessary but fun plausibility, I started with a height map of the ocean floor from Natural Earth and found a good spot in the mid-Atlantic ridge, resembling the descriptions of Antillia, that in this alternative setting was above the surface. I drew coastlines around the tallest parts of the ridge, and put a grid over that to transfer it to paper, then I detailed the coasts and drew rivers and some lines that will become mountains. Also tested a mountain style in the center of the island. My scanner really can't scan a pencil drawing, it turns out weird-looking every time, but… this is where I am now: