Map of Agor and surroundings (a test map)

[Meton]

Here is a small map I draw recently. The map is hand drawn to paper, in a style of 1950’s atlas. The lines and texts are drawn using mainly Sakura Pigma Microns, the colouring of land areas with Koi watercolor brush pens and the colouring of the sea with Promarkers. The size of the map is 7 cm x 7 cm without the frame, and the scale is 1:3 000 000, so the area shown is 210 km x 210 km.

I made this map to test the colouring I have planned to use in my bigger project, wip here. Drawing by hand, the colour is the last thing to add, so I had to make sure that the colours would look good. I think they are. The only problem was that I wasn’t aware that some of my pens were not water-resistant, so they got messed with the watercolour pens and the colour is not as clean as it should be. I have to change these pens for the bigger map.

I also wanted to test the lettering, both the different fonts and styles and the writing itself, before I start to write on the bigger map. The lettering is quite fun, but I have to practice it a bit more. I have to admit that I put too much named places on the map.

It would be very interesting to hear comments about the overall look of the test map, the colours, and whether the labels are readable and informative, or anything that comes to your mind. Thank you in advance!

[nopkin]

Wow! It looks stunning for a hand-made map. Congratulations! And to think that it's just 7 x 7 is mind-blowing. You have a great future ahead.

A few comments:

- The colors look great. A bit too saturated for a map in my opinion, but visually pleasing nonetheless (excepting that small purple blob, maybe ).

- I commend you for doing it by hand entirely, including the labels. I think that handwritten labels add a lot of charm to a map. That being said, what you can do in order to improve the lettering is to find a font that you like and try to mimic that. Especially on the larger labels, like Maslira, you want the thick / thin strokes to be consistent. As a general rule, upstrokes should be thin and downstrokes should be thick (for example, the A should be the other way around - thin when it goes up and think when it goes down).

- You can try to lose the border between the colors (but keep the sharp edge - don't smooth it out - I think it looks cool).

- In order to make the labels more readable, you could try to write them first, and then add the colors around them, maybe using a lighter shade underneath the text. Or, as an alternative, apply the color first, then find a way to lighten the colors where you are going to put the labels by using a white pencil or something like that.

Anyway, great job so far! Looking forward to the full map.

[- JO -]

Nice old atlas style... and free hands ! Congratulations !

[qhqhTerra]

I like this map!
I especially like Around Debura City.

[Meton]

Wow! It looks stunning for a hand-made map. Congratulations! And to think that it's just 7 x 7 is mind-blowing. You have a great future ahead.

A few comments:

- The colors look great. A bit too saturated for a map in my opinion, but visually pleasing nonetheless (excepting that small purple blob, maybe ).

- I commend you for doing it by hand entirely, including the labels. I think that handwritten labels add a lot of charm to a map. That being said, what you can do in order to improve the lettering is to find a font that you like and try to mimic that. Especially on the larger labels, like Maslira, you want the thick / thin strokes to be consistent. As a general rule, upstrokes should be thin and downstrokes should be thick (for example, the A should be the other way around - thin when it goes up and think when it goes down).

- You can try to lose the border between the colors (but keep the sharp edge - don't smooth it out - I think it looks cool).

- In order to make the labels more readable, you could try to write them first, and then add the colors around them, maybe using a lighter shade underneath the text. Or, as an alternative, apply the color first, then find a way to lighten the colors where you are going to put the labels by using a white pencil or something like that.

Anyway, great job so far! Looking forward to the full map.

Thank you! These were some very good advice.

- I know what you mean about the saturation. Fortunately, it's partly just a problem of this photograph, it seems I didn't check the saturation of the picture. In the actual map the colours are less saturated and thus better. They could be less saturated in the paper also, but because there are a limited amount of different colour options in the pens I used, I'd have to change the whole colour scheme to adjust the saturation, so it's quite impossible. Also, in the atlas I used as an inspiration, the high altitudes were coloured in purple. I know it looks a bit funny, but I like it, so that was one thing I particularly wanted to include in my map also

- Thank you for your advice about the lettering, I really have to learn a bit more about it. I did try to mimic some fonts I like, but because I'm not an expert in typography, I might easily make mistakes.

- I was also hoping to get the border of the colours a bit more invisible, but I did'n find a better pen for the contour linework. Maybe later.

- I have to test those tips you gave about the labels, thanks a lot!

Nice old atlas style... and free hands ! Congratulations !

Thank you!

I like this map!
I especially like Around Debura City.

Thanks!

[Kellerica]

Oh, I always have to appreciate people with the patience to do things by hand. I'll have to confess not being terribly familiar with these style of maps, so I can't comment on the accuracy of it, but I like the way you drew the elevation points. Great use of color too.

Ja hiphei, toveri suomalainen! Kiva nähdä karttojen kiehtovan muitakin meikäläisiä, meitä ei tällä foorumilla kovin montaa taida ollakaan.

[Meton]

Oh, I always have to appreciate people with the patience to do things by hand. I'll have to confess not being terribly familiar with these style of maps, so I can't comment on the accuracy of it, but I like the way you drew the elevation points. Great use of color too.

Ja hiphei, toveri suomalainen! Kiva nähdä karttojen kiehtovan muitakin meikäläisiä, meitä ei tällä foorumilla kovin montaa taida ollakaan.

Thank you! Yes, it's not a style commonly seen on this forum, but it's nice to hear such feedback!

Heipähei! Meitä ei täällä tosian montaa ole, mutta ehkä tässä on jonkinlainen edustava otos ottaen huomioon miten vähän ihmisiä täällä kuitenkin asuu koko maailmaan suhteutettuna. Mutta hauskaa tosiaan että on muitakin suomalaisia!

[J.Edward]

It looks gorgeous, Meton
I'd love to see any other maps that you've done.

[Meton]

It looks gorgeous, Meton
I'd love to see any other maps that you've done.

Thank you very much! Well, if you really want to see other maps I have done, the best place to see is instagram (@orbigraphia), where I recently joined to share my old and new maps. The only other place is here in the Guild.

But - don't expect to see anything like this. This is the first (test) map I have finished in this style, marking the start of what I call my new era of mapmaking. To see something similar, you'll have to wait until my somewhat massive ongoing map project is finished (wip).

[kenan]

Charming. Great job on producing this by hand on such a small scale.