[WIP] Omandra - fantasy map

[NedS298]

Colour on the islands definitely adds to the appeal. Just pick out a scheme, or maybe use only one.

[Failtality]

Love the look of the map here. Looks like something you'd find in an old book. I actually used to run the Nostalgia section in the book store where I work, and from time to time I'd come across old atlases. (Nothing ancient. Oldest stuff I ever got in was from around 1820.) Point being, you have a really good thing here. I guess my two cents on the aging would be don't discount they "ugly" marks that'd be in a book. Nice to have your typical aging/ foxing/ chipping- but think about spotting and stains. The things I always found most remarkable in the older books were inscriptions and stuff folks left behind. Really put it in perspective. =) I'm no expert by any means though, especially for older stuff- I'm sure other folks here have a better working knowledge of that sort of stuff.

[Schwarzkreuz]

I think the grey outlineshade of the land clashes with the colored political borders, which could be a bit more saturated and overlayed with slight texture.

[JonPin]

I finally had some time to work on the map. I drew the cartouche and saturated the political borders a bit more. Naming everything has been a pain, and there is little space left inside the islands. But I guess that's ok. Old maps are very cluttered with text. Maybe I'll finish the text this weekend, and then I just have to add some ornaments and I'm done.

[NedS298]

How did you draw that cartouche? I've always wanted to know how to do one

[JonPin]

How did you draw that cartouche? I've always wanted to know how to do one

I found one I liked, and then used illustrator to redraw the linework (pen tool, pathfinder effect etc.) Then I imported into PS, I drew the colors and shadows, then distressed the lines a bit. Simple

[ngm132]

The world was used for my pirate themed campaign for 4th edition d&d. Somebody have an idea what so much sea would do to the atmosphere? And the islands are mostly of volcanic origin. So many volcanos would make the greenhouse effect more evident than on earth maybe... What about the tides? A friend told me that tides are bigger on shores of oceans. Ideas are welcome

I just added the paper texture, some color tweaking, and started naming the islands. As for the mountains... Not many world maps from the 18th century have mountain ranges. Perhaps I will do only a few simple ranges on larger islands. For the rivers I decided that less is more, but I'm not completely pleased with them yet. Will wait for the names and mountains and revisit them then.

Attachment 63979

I'm not a geologist so take this with a grain of salt but I think greenhouse gasses are good for atmospheric evolution. It's the runaway greenhouse effect that we have to watch out for. Initially the greenhouse gasses help to set up the right mixture of oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen (among others) in the atmosphere. The plentiful ocean on our planet enabled the atmosphere to develop a water recycling system with evaporation and precipitation. So I would imagine the oceans on your world would perform the same. You might have some wild weather since ocean temperature controls weather. Your pirates would have to be some brave dudes. Your map is great! I love that you posted the stages as you went along. Really inspiring!!

[JonPin]

This is a personal project, so it sort of just fades away when I'm swamped with work. But I finally managed to find some time yesterday and did some work on the corners and ornaments. I'm just playing around with the layout and colors a bit before I do the weathering. What do you guys think?

[Iggy]

What do you guys think?

I'm thinking "I wish I knew how to make something great as that.". What projection technique are you using?

[JonPin]

I'm thinking "I wish I knew how to make something great as that.". What projection technique are you using?

I think the projection is called the Wulff net. If you're asking how I did it: I used autoCAD to make the lines of the globe structure and then exported to Illustrator, fixed it up a bit and added text. Then I exported to Photoshop. The rest was done in Photoshop.

The bottom corner drawings might be a little sketchy. I didn't have a graphics tablet, so I made the lines with just the mouse.