This map was drawn as a private commission last spring. It depicts the topography of a fictional, earth-like planet. The map is entirely hand-drawn to an about 21 cm x 42 cm sheet (8'' x 16'') with micron pens and coloured with Copic markers.

The client gave me a rough sketch about the topography, which I then redraw much more detailed. The original map was in equirectangular projection, so the project started with figuring out what would be the best projection for the map. As one of the big continents is around south pole, no conventional "north is up" projection was going to work. In the end I used azimuthal equal-area projection in two hemispheres, centered to 70th latitude, with which there were no big distortions and the big continents were shown uninterrupted. The reprojection was made with G.Projector, a great tool.

After reprojecting the projection was traced to a paper with a light box, and then the contours. The client had also a rough plan of tectonic plates, which I used in the process. For the colouring I used a quite classic atlas style scheme, and I added some rivers too to give it bit more contents. The climate was not considered in this, although the area around south pole was left without rivers as there would certainly be an ice cap.

The client never thoroughly told, and I never asked where this map is eventually going to be used, so I don't know much about the backgrounds of this world building project. Nevertheless, I'm quite happy how this map turned out and it was a pleasure to make a full-colour fictional topographic map! The client was also very happy (the original map was mailed too).

I'd be happy to hear if you have some comments or critique!

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