The Old Kingdom

[Schley]

Here's a look at my new map of the Old Kingdom, featured in Garth Nix's upcoming novel ‪Goldenhand‬, the most recent in the Abhorsen series published by HarperCollins.
The book's release date is October 11th but Garth shared it early so I'm showing it off and making prints available now through my web store.

I love working on traditional end sheet maps and this one (the second I've done for the series) was a joy. Let me know what you think!

[J.Edward]

Always beautiful work Mike. Very inspirational.
Glad to see you posting new work here.
Love the rift and the forests.
Only qualm, which happens to me as well, is that all the line work can make it hard to tell the sort of terrain that is being conveyed.
That said, I love your line work, so can't really complain.

[Schley]

Only qualm, which happens to me as well, is that all the line work can make it hard to tell the sort of terrain that is being conveyed.

Thanks for the kind words & constructive crit. Sometimes I get a bit consumed by the detail to the point that an almost pointillist aesthetic begins obscuring the information conveyed. It's a tough task that I need to think about more in future projects.

[J.Edward]

You maintain a fairly good balance with it.
It isn't something that comes up all the time with your line work pieces.
And I understand that as well - close in on a piece, I can get more detail in there than may be needed sometimes.

[Abu Lafia]

The pointilist aesthetic is what i (and many other people i guess...) love your work for! Although i see John's point, even on the rather poor photography of the printed version on Garth Nix' FB site the map is still quite readable. Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful piece with us.

[ladiestorm]

What an honor it is to be able to comment on one of your maps! If I may introduce myself, I'm LadieStorm (or Storm for short), and I'm a cc3+ user, so I recognize your style . I've had a lot of fun with it on one of my own maps!

As for this one, I must say I'm in jaw dropping awe! The detail that you put into this mind boggling, but I wouldn't change a thing! I especially love the way you connect your rivers with the shore line...I've started doing this, lately, to make the transition look more realistic. Your cliffs look awesome, and I LOVE your sea monsters (apparently, I'm partial to them )

I could continue, but I don't want to turn into a raving lunatic . Just a truly inspiring map!

I do have one question, and this is just because I'm annoyingly curious, but the little symbols in your border... I noticed that they are all similar, but different. Is there a hidden meaning there?

[Schley]

I do have one question, and this is just because I'm annoyingly curious, but the little symbols in your border... I noticed that they are all similar, but different. Is there a hidden meaning there?

Those were inspired by the Old Kingdom charter marks. I was looking for a suitably symbolic but unobtrusive form to build into the framework of the map. I thought it was a good fit.

[Warlin]

Thanks for sharing this beautifull map in the line of your Faerun end sheet map which is one of my favourite map. Your work is really an inspiration for all the cartographers.

[ladiestorm]

Those were inspired by the Old Kingdom charter marks. I was looking for a suitably symbolic but unobtrusive form to build into the framework of the map. I thought it was a good fit.

I agree, it's an excellent fit! Am I correct in assuming this is hand drawn? Is this done with paper and ink? or on one of those graphic tablets?

I apologize if I seem overly nosy... but I'm a writer that wants to be able to make my own maps, instead of having to pay someone to do it... so I tend to ask a lot of questions... especially of the professionals!

[wdmartin]

The only spot where the detail is really problematic is just north of the wall and south of High Bridge. The labels of the points of interest are a bit hard to make out there.

But that's not your fault, I think -- it's a natural outgrowth of the plot progression of the Abhorsen series, combined with space limitations imposed by the topography. A lot of the significant things happened in that area in the first three books, so there's a lot to label, and a comparatively small space to do it in.

I've always kind of wished that Garth Nix hadn't so transparently modeled his kingdoms after Britain. Ancelstierre = England, The Old Kingdom = Scotland, the Wall = Hadrian's Wall. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that particularly, and much of the flavor of the series revolves around having a comparatively sharp dividing line between Magic in the North and Technology in the South. It's just a pet peeve of mine when authors build worlds which juuuust happen to share the same basic shape as the real world. And not even an entirely rational pet peeve at that. Pay me no mind!