If you have a high resolution SLR digital camera verticle camera stand, maybe. Depending where you are at, some Kinko's and similar shops offer scanning services - generally a 24" x 36" color scan is around $25.
To me there is no work around for a flatbed scanner, and yes with my 12" x 18" flatbed scanner, I am always scanning 18" x 24" hand-drawings for my maps, sometimes I scan larger stuff. How, you ask?
Using the straight edges of the paper itself as a guide I orientate the map in the direction that allows the least number of total scans to do it all. First I place my sheet placing one corner on the flatbed scanner - then scan it (I usually work at 300 ppi). Once scanned, I slide the paper left or right, allowing for a slight overlap of the previously scanned area, then scan next piece. Continue the process until you've scanned to other corner of the sheet of paper. Usually, I need to do more scans, so I rotate the drawing 180 degrees, and starting at one corner begin scanning multiple times until the entire sheet is scanned.
If the sheet of paper rotates slightly skewing the direction, its best to straighten it using the paper edges as a guid before scanning, this minimizes the need to rotate your scan to fit the other scans - this can be a bugger of problem if you don't keep the sheet straight on the scanner.
In Photoshop (or GIMP), create a new blank image that matches the dimensions of the intended final map (at least the size of the paper drawn on). Starting with a corner scanned area, cut and paste onto the new blank image, placing at the proper corner. Then cut and paste each subsequent next scanned image to place on the other one. Sometimes it helps to give the new image a 50% transparency just to ensure that the seams line up perfectly - it may take some slight rotation on a given piece if it were not straight in the scanner in the first place. Do this for all the pieces until the map is reconstructed.
Do not make any color adjustments until all pieces are placed and the image is flattened. Sometimes its difficult to match between scans if you make color or contrast adjustments to the individual scans. Its easier to match them and cleanup any edge distortions once all put together in its complete form. I often have to seriously adjust the contract (increase) to get linework to show best. I usually apply two applications of the Blur tool, then an Unsharp Mask to get clean lines.
I save in TIFF as its a non-color/resolution degenerating file format. Once I start to do color work and what not I often save as JPG just for working with a smaller file. However, unlike most mappers, I usually don't export to JPG until the final work is done. I prefer using TIFF as a working format for the above reason described.
Is this method a pain in the ass - it sure is, but it creates the sharpest best quality rendition of your hand-drawing for map creation purposes. I would even say its a thousand times better than using a digital camera to digitally capture your hand-drawn image. But its up to you!
My 2 cents!
GP
PS: a single CCD camera inside the digital camera is usually not the same quality especially when taking photos of flat objects as a scanner, since the paper is stationary and right on the glass just above the scanning camera itself.
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