[wip] Spindrift

[Municorn]

Eep that's a lot of feedback.

To clear something up first, I'm as much a skilled or experienced cartographer as I'm a graphic designer, basically I'm neither.
I'm an illustrator and storyteller before the other things in every case, and this reflects into the choices I've made in the map to some extend. There's also practical considerations of course, such as time constraints, but that's a different matter altogether.

That said, on to the feedback.

@ Eilathen:
The continent is indeed partly undiscovered/uncultivated/uninhabited, and you are correct on a large part of the area being dessert-like.
Also, thanks for the rep. No idea what it does, but thanks .


@Hai-Etlik
Thanks for that wall of text (I don't mean that sarcastically. Sincerely, thanks for the time and effort that went into that.) I've some thoughts and questions on the subjects you've touched.

- I see now that I've used the latitude and longitude incorrectly. Not that I didn't know of map projections or any of that, but I have made the grid (and the chart) with the idea of those regional maps in an atlas. I should have probably used numbers and letters like the atlas so I wouldn't confuse anyone.
In other words, I placed the grid as a tool to help find locations as if the map was part of a larger collection of maps with a register (to be able to say Brokers vale is on square 10,36). I wasn't at all thinking about them as longitudes and latitudes to be honest*sweat*.

I guess I can do two things, either change it to be numbers and letters like an atlas to prevent future confusion, or decide on what the entire planet looks like and figure out the proper numbers (as I haven't really. In the 3rd image from the top -which is the overview- I just drew what I needed for the story - I haven't at all decided if there are more continents or perhaps just a lot more ocean). The first option seems more foolproof to me.

- As for the Portolan lines and compas, I'll gladly admit that I've added them for their looks, and I wasn't entirely sure how I was supposed to add them correctly -since technically this chart doesn't have any other characteristic of a Portolan chart, they are out of place either way.

- I came to the same conclusion about the size of the continent (not so much the planet, since I haven't really drawn or defined the whole of it). It's still on the small side tho (Orbani is roughly the size of Scandinavia). In the reality there would be consequences of living on a smaller planet and continent of course, but since this is a fantasy world I decided that I could take some liberties for story purposes.

- The problem with the river system starting at Pine Edge, I fully recognize. I figured, since rivers always flow to lower grounds, the ground level at the source is higher, but I haven't done anything in the map to show that so I see now that it might look out of place, even without the split.

Would adding a few hills there to make it more reasonable? I could also split the river going East from Pine edge and the one going South from it into two seperate rivers. There's a minor story reason for the system to be like that, but nothing that I can't tweak.

- That it's recognizably made on a computer is bothering me to, to some extend - but from a practical point of view it seemed unavoidable. I could hand-letter and ink everything, but it would cost me days of extra work which I don't have. I could add some imperfections, but I fear it wouldn't make a huge difference.

- As for the coloring and content:
I agree. Entirely. Before calling the map finished I tried a number of things, having well defined Forrest areas, having tiny trees all over the place. It looked horrible, so I went with ascetics on this one.

- About the Labels:
I'll try to look at consistency again with different priorities if I find the time.
Although in one of your example I disagree. In importance, comparing Central Orbani with the Barren, would be equal to comparing North America to the Rocky mountains for instance. To me it makes sense they don't have the same size Label. I'll take a look at your link though, see if that helps me.

I have actually put all the curved labels on paths, but someone else also pointed out that the font looked distorted nonetheless, so same here: if I find some time I might take an other shot at fixing it.

So em yeah. I hope I don't sound too defensive on this, I do really value the input and I'll certainly consider it for future maps. I'll also see if I can make some minor tweaks on this one if I find the time, but I'm afraid that will be tricky. For me this is an extra thing to be doing next to my comic and commercial work, which are both a hand full.

[Hai-Etlik]

- I see now that I've used the latitude and longitude incorrectly. Not that I didn't know of map projections or any of that, but I have made the grid (and the chart) with the idea of those regional maps in an atlas. I should have probably used numbers and letters like the atlas so I wouldn't confuse anyone.
In other words, I placed the grid as a tool to help find locations as if the map was part of a larger collection of maps with a register (to be able to say Brokers vale is on square 10,36). I wasn't at all thinking about them as longitudes and latitudes to be honest*sweat*.

I guess I can do two things, either change it to be numbers and letters like an atlas to prevent future confusion, or decide on what the entire planet looks like and figure out the proper numbers (as I haven't really. In the 3rd image from the top -which is the overview- I just drew what I needed for the story - I haven't at all decided if there are more continents or perhaps just a lot more ocean). The first option seems more foolproof to me.

I'd suggest going with a purely decorative border as it plays to your strengths and fits the overall style and purpose of the map. Locator grids have a rather specific purpose and that's for high density maps where you need to look up features by a non-spatial identifier (Streets on a street map). They really don't work very wall without a grid over the map extent. They don't really fit with fantasy maps like this, and they don't fit with the ruler/subdivision design you used which implies a coordinate system where dividing into smaller units makes sense (like Lat-Lon, UTM, etc) A straight border without any cartographic gewgaws is perfectly reasonable and doesn't make the map any less mappy. Adding "mappy things" to a map is rather like adding "vehicular things" to a vehicle: you might end up with the map equivalent of a sailing ship with caterpillar treads. If you don't add elements that imply precision you haven't considered, you avoid painting yourself into a corner (or contradicting yourself) Maps don't need to have everything and in fact shouldn't have anything that they don't need.

- As for the Portolan lines and compas, I'll gladly admit that I've added them for their looks, and I wasn't entirely sure how I was supposed to add them correctly -since technically this chart doesn't have any other characteristic of a Portolan chart, they are out of place either way.

This is another "caterpillar treads on sailing ships" thing as your map is a general reference map for land, but compass roses and rhumb lines are for aeronautical navigation charts. They can be used for decoration on maps that don't need them as decoration, but you do need to respect their meaning when doing so. Not all maps preserve bearing and those that don't should never have these elements. Roughly speaking, if northeast is always the same direction anywhere on the map (it's possible to preserve cardinal directions without preserving others) then a compass is OK.

- I came to the same conclusion about the size of the continent (not so much the planet, since I haven't really drawn or defined the whole of it). It's still on the small side tho (Orbani is roughly the size of Scandinavia). In the reality there would be consequences of living on a smaller planet and continent of course, but since this is a fantasy world I decided that I could take some liberties for story purposes.

Magic can excuse anything but its best used sparingly and for a reason. If the magic is making the world "work" while much smaller, it's worth thinking about why the magic is doing that. Just being a small area of an Earth sized planet lets you save your magic for somewhere else it might have more impact.

- The problem with the river system starting at Pine Edge, I fully recognize. I figured, since rivers always flow to lower grounds, the ground level at the source is higher, but I haven't done anything in the map to show that so I see now that it might look out of place, even without the split.

Would adding a few hills there to make it more reasonable? I could also split the river going East from Pine edge and the one going South from it into two seperate rivers. There's a minor story reason for the system to be like that, but nothing that I can't tweak.

I'd split them and extend them both. The east river northeast back toward those other mountains and the south river round the mountains ant into the adjoining valley. That will give both plenty of flow to be navigable at which point the fact that they come close together there would justify wanting to build an artificial canal, or to have a natural bifurcation that has been captured by the other river the same way the Orinoco splits off the natural Casiquiare Canal to the Rio Negro. A natural canal like that is likely to have a lot of seasonal variation, possibly drying up entirely in dry seasons. If a connection between navigable rivers as a justification for Pine Edge being there is the reason you need a link, then a portage road is another option if you can't justify a canal.

If it is a canal then it makes sense that other canals would be built elsewhere. The branch north of Vinuros is a possibility. I'd strongly suggest eliminating any bifurcations that don't need to be there for the story.

- That it's recognizably made on a computer is bothering me to, to some extend - but from a practical point of view it seemed unavoidable. I could hand-letter and ink everything, but it would cost me days of extra work which I don't have. I could add some imperfections, but I fear it wouldn't make a huge difference.

Yeah, this is hard to do and often the effort just can't be justified. The only map I'm all that happy with in this regard took me a month to complete, including making a font and all the symbols from scratch just so that everything matched.

- About the Labels:
I'll try to look at consistency again with different priorities if I find the time.
Although in one of your example I disagree. In importance, comparing Central Orbani with the Barren, would be equal to comparing North America to the Rocky mountains for instance. To me it makes sense they don't have the same size Label. I'll take a look at your link though, see if that helps me.

I wasn't talking about the typeface there but about being curved or not. Both are areas and it helps keep the map looking consistent if you either label all areas with curves, or all with horizontal labels. Giving them different typefaces to indicate that they are different kinds of area is perfectly reasonable. I was getting a bit tired when I got to labelling so I started to rush and wasn't as clear. Sorry about that.

I have actually put all the curved labels on paths, but someone else also pointed out that the font looked distorted nonetheless, so same here: if I find some time I might take an other shot at fixing it.

Yeah I thought so. It's the oblique font that's the problem. Italic works as the variant form let us know it's supposed to be slanted. Oblique is just the regular forms skewed and in combination with the curve it makes it look like an error resulting from writing on a curve.

[Municorn]

Thanks that clears some of that up. If I find a free rainy weekend before I'm sending this map to the printer I'll take an other shot at it with your comments in mind.

Also, I hope I'm not the only one who thinks a sailing ship with caterpillar treads sounds pretty awesome...