Belgica Orientalis - the Northeastern Low Countries of the Late Sixteenth Century

[Will Phillips]

This map, seen below in inks and then watercolors, was an attempt to move away from the digital tools I have become comfortable with and create a map wholly by hand in the styles of the seminal cartographers of the late sixteenth century. As something of an amateur historian with an interest in the Eighty Years War and Dutch Republic, I chose to create a map of the northeast provinces of the early republic circa the 1580s.

The maps were awarded the Judge's Choice award in a medieval and Renaissance arts competition from a field of almost sixty entrants. So, while my penmanship is atrocious, I'm pleased with the whole.







Note that I digitally touched up the scan so it reflects the gradiated watercolor washes in a manner close to the physical original, as the original sans were at too high a contrast and didn't pick up the light color washes.