The Land of Ire and Ice

[altasilvapuer]

Oh, I like this idea! Brilliant!
I'd rep you, but it seems I need to spread it around some, first.

Looking at this, I'm getting the idea to combine some landmasses, as well, though several. I'm thinking it might be interesting to take multiple continents/subcontinents/etc, threshold them to strict 2-bit black & white, and set the layer style in PS to either exclusion or difference. That way every time I place a landmass over another, it'd subtract from the existing parts, and add to the existing holes. Could be pretty interesting.

I might also try it with just grayscale, rather than straight 2-bit B&W.

Very intriguing idea, Flaterectomy!

-asp

EDIT: I tried fidgeting about with both grayscale and the 2-bit, and it seems the 2-bit worked better, especially when combined with some cloud filters underneath merged down to randomize the coastlines, and the patched together. Didn't work as well as I'd thought, but I think that was mostly due to the limited time I spent on it.

Can't wait to see more of this map, though. Very spiffy.

-asp

[Flaterectomy]

Update!

I started labelling early this time, so I wouldn't feel like I was doing something sacreligious later on. The names here are Irish translations(1) of the meaning of the original Icelandic towns and cities(2), barring Aontroim (which is the Irish name for the Northern Irish town of Antrim) and the island Oileann na Neagh, which is actually a lake, Lough Neagh, in Northern Island. I'll likely be putting some Irish coastal towns on the "inner" coastline as well.

I also added more rivers, which all (more or less) follow the path of the real rivers in Iceland, and since I took an Ireland-sized bite out of it they just run from inner-sea to outer-sea now. I'm not sure whether I like this too much (feedback please ), because the river police might eat me.

Other work done so far includes desaturating the sea somewhat, and I added some general texture/grain.

altasilvapuer: I'm glad you felt inspired to tinker with due to this idea! I've also started pondering on a few other ways to play with the principle, I doubt this'll be my last augmented-reality (for lack of a better term) map.

Footnotes:
1. My friend from Ireland who has been translating these for me has stated "I won't win any awards for Irish there and my old teacher would maybe clatter me but that's about as well as I can do I think," so please be gentle.
2. These meanings could very likely be wrong as I got them from teh interwebz, were mauled by an online Icelandic -> English dictionary, and I wasn't too picky here to begin with.