Islands of Mertisaream

[CaptainJohnHawk]

Greetings Guild!

Lately I have been researching the old styles of island mapping, mostly in the Mediterranean. The unique way they organized and described their islands really inspired me to create my own.

A few things about this map:
It is a fictional setting
The text is purposefully washed out and difficult to read
The images of ships are not created by me. I pulled them off of several antique maps I liked. (I am learning to draw my own currently)
The large landmass in the middle is simply used to show orientation of the islands to the main land, and because of that, has no significant markings other than coastal settlements.

I would love to see what you all think about this map and this style. Comments are greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
Capt.JH

[Wingshaw]

Nice job. You've done a pretty good job of getting the style right. My critique is, while the style is a very close model on those old maps, it still looks too digital. The lines seem too crisp and clean; the colours a bit too bright and even. Those old maps you mention, because they were hand-painted, the pigment would not always fit inside the linework, and would not be applied evenly across the parchment (nor would the parchment absorb the ink evenly). Similarly, ink and pigment may have been of inferior quality to today, and so would fade much quicker and, again, unevenly. Perhaps some subtle old-paper textures slapped over it all would help. Another possibility would be to use layer masks to very subtly fade parts of the colour/linework, so that it appears less even and less crisp.

Overall, though, a really nice map and a great style to work in. Have some rep.

THW

[CaptainJohnHawk]

Thank you very much for the comment and rep!

I do agree with you on the digital feel. I might rework the color and maybe the edges of the islands with a 40% opacity eraser or something similar to get some fade in the coloration.
Thank you for telling me that about the history. I never really considered all of those factors with the pigments.
It blows my mind how incredible the cartography was in this period. The random portraits they would add to the sides, and ship paintings are pieces of art by themselves.

Cheers!
Capt.JH