I drew this map of Mirtenik about five years ago as a birthday present for my (now) wife when I learned whe was writing a fantasy novel. It was my first foray into cartography and I was surprised at how hard/awesome it was! Very time consuming, but incredibly rewarding! I didn't really have any specific style I was shooting for, nor did I really use many references. I just grabbed a couple of fantasy books off the shelf and scanned the general style of the maps within.

Mirt_Netz.jpg

I started out by hand drawing all of the details I didn't feel confident I could do in Photoshop with a mouse. This was before my days with the Wacom. That includes the borders, forests, rivers, hills, mountains, and ocean edges. Drawn with a 0.5 mechanical pencil on a piece of printer paper.

I feel there's a good chance I may invoke the river police on this one! But before you offer swift justice to my lack of general gravitational knowledge, know that I am totally aware and am going to be re-drawing it soon. The wife soon to be publishing her novel, and will need a proper map.

Mirt_RAW.jpg

This was scanned, and then all the names, cities, borders and general antiquing were done in Photoshop. Credit goes to the fine folks at DeviantArt who drew the beautiful ships, borders, city symbols, compass rose, and sea creatures. I only wish I were that talented.