The Forgotten Lands

[Meton]

This map is at the same time the first proper map I post here to the Finished Maps forum and something very different I have ever done. I had the idea of trying to do a classic fantasy style, black-and-white map, and the idea developed when I found a map I had drawn about ten years ago, when I was 14 or 15 years old. The map is the only map I have done in a fantasy style and not in a realistic contemporary map style. I remember how I filled it with all kinds of fantasy cliches and ad intriguing place names. I find the contents of the map still quite amusing and interesting, but technically the map is really poor.

So I came up with the idea that I'll redo the map, using skills I have learned and better tools I now have. Because the contents of the map were fine, I decided that I won't change anything in it. So I kept all the strange (although quite decent) coastlines, the place names and even the one questionable river that runs through a mountain range (well, it isn't entirely unthinkable). I didn't add names for places that didn't have any. I didn't draw forests or any other vegetation as there weren't forests in the old map. However, I decided to translate the Finnish names into English, which was also quite fun to do. In other words I pretended that the 15 year old me is a customer who just wants his map redrawn and translated. Only thing I added was the title; there was no title in the original map, so I invented this new title based on the story of the map.

This map is not a worldbuilding map, I have no idea what kind of realms or cities the named places are and which area exactly does the names refer to, what language the place names are or what is the history of the places. I didn't thought about those things back then and I didn't figure out them now. But I still like looking at the map and thinking about what adventures there could happen!

The map is hand drawn to a A4 sheet (Canson illustration paper) with Pigma Micron pens (003, 005, 01, 02 and 05). This map was fun to draw, it was altogether quite fast, and I learned a lot while doing it. I'm happy with most of the lettering, name translations, name placement, the mountains, compass rose, and the overall layout of the map. However, some of the labels were not succesful and there is even one typing error. As the map was mainly a test of the techniques, there are a lot of things I would do now differently. Maybe there are more maps to come in this style!

The WIP thread is here. Thank you for everyone who commented and helped me in the making!

Here's a picture of the map I drew about ten years ago (A5 gridpaper):

[Kellerica]

I've already been following the WIP, so I won't bother repeating myself here. I'll just re-state that it's a wonderful map, and it's really cool to see the progress over the original.

Loistoyksilö, tykkään!

[MistyBeee]

Clean and well-engineered, with amazing lettering and a touch of charm : how could we ask more ? Superb job, Meton !

[nopkin]

This looks awesome! I love the clean look, great job!

[Ilanthar]

Very nice work, Meton !

[Blaidd Drwg]

That's a very nice map! Simple technique, but very effective.
How did you do the larger lettering? Did you have some kind of template?

Also: it is fun to revisit older work and compare, isn't it? It's a bit like climbing a mountain, and looking back to enjoy the view.

[Meton]

I've already been following the WIP, so I won't bother repeating myself here. I'll just re-state that it's a wonderful map, and it's really cool to see the progress over the original.

Loistoyksilö, tykkään!

Clean and well-engineered, with amazing lettering and a touch of charm : how could we ask more ? Superb job, Meton !

This looks awesome! I love the clean look, great job!

Very nice work, Meton !

Thank you everyone! It's great to hear such comments. Thank you for the support and thanks for the rep also! I guess the clean look is due to that I didn't know how to do anything else with the map. It's nice to hear it works this way!

That's a very nice map! Simple technique, but very effective.
How did you do the larger lettering? Did you have some kind of template?

Also: it is fun to revisit older work and compare, isn't it? It's a bit like climbing a mountain, and looking back to enjoy the view.

Thank you! When doing the larger lettering I used as a help a page from and old cartography book, where are the measures and correct spacing of upper case roman characters. I draw the bottom and top line of the title to the paper with pencil, and draw a scetch of the letters by adapting the widths and spaces from the book, with the help of a ruler. Then I inked the letter using a ruler with the straight lines and free hand with the curves, and erased the scetches and lines. I didn't measure every line in a millimeter scale, because it would have taken a lot of time and small differences are not so serious. But I should have still concentrated more to the curved letters, because some of them became very poor (like the G in "forgotten").

And yes, you're exactly right! I like the metaphor. It was really fun to do this new version, and it's rewarding to see it finished and to compare it to the old one.