[WIP] Wörld of Metal

[Rongar]

Greetings, fellow cartographers!

It's been a while! I don't think a whole lot of you would even remember me but I've been semi-active in this beautiful forum a few years ago. At some point, however, life "happened" and I didn't have much time to continue with my cartography, hence my absence. But right now I finally do have some time at hand so I thought it would be a good opportunity to dive back in and create a fun little map to get me back on track. Truth is I've become more than just a little rusty.

Alright, here goes. Since I'm a huge metal head I've come up with the idea of a heavy metal-inspired map. For those of you who don't know: The umlaut in the title is not a typo but a so-called metal umlaut. My plan is to fill the whole map with a lot of metal references, for example having countries resemble some of the major metal genres and the cities and other places named after bands or songs. I hope I don't commit copyright infringements by doing so. This is just for fun, after all, but to avoid trouble I might alter the names to the point where it's different but still recognizable (ie. Metallicania instead of Metallica). Anyhow, the landmass is obviously shaped like a guitar. For reference, this is the base picture. And since there isn't much to see yet, I'll keep the preview somewhat small. The original is 4500px by 3000px. Oh, and I work with GIMP, by the way.

But enough talk, let's get started.

This should be fun! ^^


Regards,

~~Rongar

[ChickPea]

This looks like a lot of fun! Great start with the land shape.

Watching with interest.

[Rongar]

Thank you, ChickPea!

I've made some small changes to the land shape, though, to make it more believable. I mean, it's still obvious but a little less so. I've also added a larger island in the shape of a skull. All in all I think it looks much better, how about you? Critique and suggestions are always very welcome!

Other stuff added:

- a first draft for a border (leather bracelet with rivets), with a small patch missing on each side (the rivets didn't match up properly there )
- a compass rose shaped like a pentagram, pointing South instead of North
- a rough sketch for a sign with the name of the map (I might mirror the skeletons to look away from each other, not sure yet)
- a few labels to experiment with fonts and the layout of the kingdoms
- a basic parchment texture for the landmass
- a black outline and a white-ish glow for the landmass


Oh yeah, and I had to make the canvas larger. The landmass is rather small due to its' shape and I didn't feel like I had enough space to add mountains 'n text and stuff so I've enlarged it all to ~6000x4000 px. For the sake of comparison I'll shrink it down to a size similar to the first WIP (2000x1347) - there isn't much detail yet anyway.


Regards,

~~Rongar

[Diamond]

LOL! This is great. I'm not even a metalhead and I love it.

[Rongar]

Haha, thanks Diamond. Glad to hear that.

Alright, new WIP. I didn't get much done, sadly, but "not much" is still better than nothing, amirite?

- resized the landmass to fit the canvas entirely, lost a small island in the process, but that's alright
- added a cheesy as hell lore paragraph (hey, metal is cheesy as hell )
- reworked the border a bit (still not final)
- added test mountains and test forests (only one is more or less complete. I'm not sure if I wanna continue in that style, though, as I've never done it before. Will see how it plays out)
- added ripples or water waves (or whatever it's called)

Will post full size this time, but it's already pretty heavy so I had to reduce the quality a bit to fit the maximum file size.

Critique welcome! Thank you!



PS: I'll credit everyone for the brushes and stuff I've used after I finished the map. Like I said, almost everything is subject to change.

[ChickPea]

Nice update. I think it looks much better with the empty areas cropped out. I was wondering how you were going to fill them, but this focuses the eye entirely on the land masses, and it's a big improvement.

I like your lore, but I'm not sold on the font you've used. I could see it on a wedding invitation maybe, but it feels too delicate for the metal theme. It's a little incongruous with the studded border, IMO. If you're stuck for font ideas, check out dafont.com (if you're not already aware of this site).

Fonts aside, the map's looking great! I like where you're going with it.

[Abu Lafia]

Really cool concept Rongar! Love what you have so far, cheesy "hin oder her" I agree with Chickpea, that you could use a more readable (though cheesy/metaly enough) font for the lore text. Also, i miss the "moshpit" as a landmark and the "Island of wimps and posers" XD Keep up the great work!

[Mouse]

I'm with ChickPea and Abu. You have some beautiful colours in there

[DanielHasenbos]

Haha, great idea. I like what you've got so far! There's lots of great details and I love the compass! Your forests and mountains are very good, though I think the forests look a little flat right now.

-Dan

[Greg]

Well, who would have thought that using a guitar shape as the basis for a map would actually work so pretty darn well?

I agree with Daniel on the forests looking a bit flat, but otherwise it's got a pretty nice style to it already. Keeping rocking on with it!