[WIP] The Forgotten Realms
I started another map project for a while instead of continuing bigger projects. I think it's probably all the things I have seen here in CG and in Instagram that has lead to this: I will try my skills with classic fantasy map style.
I have made tons of fictional maps of more realistic places in modern settings with atlas-style cartography. But when going through my old drawings I found a map I made probably when I was 14 or 15 years old, so about 10 years ago. It is the single one map I have done in a fantasy style, with pictorial mountains, intriguing place names and regions with indeterminate territories. (Of course there can be fantasy maps without these).
The old map: (scan)
I found this map still quite amusing, it has many things I could call fantasy cliches, but still I like it. However, it's technically quite poor, hard to read and a bit messy. So - my idea was that I'll try to practice the fantasy map style by redrawing the old map with better tools and techiques. I try to do it so that I won't change the contents at all - I'll keep all the coastlines, mountains and towns where thay are without adding or removing anything. I'll also keep the place names like they are, but all names that are written in Finnish I will translate to English, for making the map more understandable internationally.
When coming up with this idea I found it so challenging and compelling that I started immediately. For this point I have copied the coastlines with pencil, scetched the mountains and scethed some of the names. I have inked the names for the biggest kingdoms and for two smaller regions, and the circles for towns. In addition, I have listed and translated all the names and thought about what fonts I will use. The original was A5 gridpaper, and the new one is A4. (For copying the coastlines I first used photocopier to make an A4 copy and then drew through against light). Also, I invented a name for the map, based from its story.
It would be great to hear some comments or feedback!
WIP: (a poor picture)
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