My entry for the March/April 2018 Lite Challenge.

The name refers to John Stevenson a.k.a. J.Edward as the map is meant as a tribute to his marvelous and inspiring work, especially his Thurian Age map.

I've been fascinated by his depiction of a globe since the day I saw this map. I even joke when he posts a new one in this style using the expression "pulling a Thurian" (it'll become a thing, I'm sure).

I also wanted to progress in my handling of my ink brush so, I drew the whole map on an A3 sheet of paper with my kuretake n°13 soft brush. I had already played a bit with it but my control on the pressure and on the width of the strokes was far from satisfactory. Drawing this map helped me progress with the brush and I'll keep using it as it's a lot of fun.

At first, I wanted to draw a thorough pencil sketch and ink it like a comic page but I dreaded the result so much, it took me a very long time to start the sketch. When I did start, I drew about half of the mountains in an ugly way then took the brush and did all the linework directly (hopefully, the mountain do not look at all like the sketch). Each stroke was an ordeal as I constantly feared I'd ruin the map but it came out roughly how I wanted.

I added the black space background and the stars digitally, as well as the shadows on the ribbon (the original piece has it all by hand). When the time came to label the map, I decided to do it without using a font to keep the spirit of the map. As it was a tribute to John's fantastic maps, I decided to mimic his lettering (I plead guilty, I'm a complete fanboy) and, for someone whose handwriting is terrible, it was a good experience and came out ok. The names are easy to find save for some more obscure references. If you want some explanations, do not hesitate to ask.

I'm really happy with the end result and will certainly do another one, bigger, but with multiliners this time. It'll allow for more variety and detail.

Here's the WIP thread and here comes the beast !

Click image for larger version.  Name: Stevensonia final.jpg  Views: 369  Size: 6.84 MB  ID: 106392

© Thomas Rey - 2018 - All rights reserved

As always, your critics and comments are more than welcome.

Cheers !