16th Century Styled Eastern Netherlands [Historical]

[Caenwyr]

This is looking very interesting, Will! I like the layout very much, and since this depicts a region not TOO far from home (I live in northern Belgium), it certainly feels recognizable. I was just wondering (but maybe that's my view on the place as a relative "southerner"), shouldn't this be called Northern Netherlands instead?

Nevermind, I'm probably being picky

I'm curious how this is gonna turn out once you begin colouring it!

[Will Phillips]

I was just wondering... shouldn't this be called Northern Netherlands instead?

I struggled with that, to be honest, and if I could have translated "Northeastern" into Latin, I would have done that.

As I'm certain you know, the rebellious provinces in the late 16th century that were to become the Dutch Republic were constantly characterized as "the North." So, labelling my map as "North" and not including Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht didn't seem correct. At the same time, there are occasional references to "the eastern provinces" when referring to Gelders and Overijssel, so that seemed like it was a more appropriate word to use.

I'm curious how this is gonna turn out once you begin colouring it!

Me, too. I'm going to start painting tonight or tomorrow night. Haven't done watercolors before. We'll see how this goes.

[Will Phillips]

Will's first time painting with watercolors is underway.

Not the worst thing ever. But no masterpiece! Ha!

[ChickPea]

This is looking great. I love the style.

[DanielHasenbos]

I have no experience with watercolors, but this looks great. I live in the Netherlands so it's nice to explore the map and see all these familiar names! Really great job on this!

[Will Phillips]

I live in the Netherlands so it's nice to explore the map and see all these familiar names!

Thanks! Spelling was very irregular back then, and to be honest, I'm uncertain if the spellings I'm referencing on some maps are Low German or Dutch or Friesen or Low Saxon or what. Hope it's close enough.

[Will Phillips]

Okay, watercolors are as done as they are going to get.

Any ideas how to take a better photo of this? It's a 14x26 inch map, so a normal scanner won't work (plus I'm not sure how well the watercolor will react).

[ChickPea]

This is marvellous! I absolutely love it. I hope you can get a decent scan of it. Would you be able to scan individual areas and piece it together in a Photoshop/Gimp app?

[Caenwyr]

You could try laying it on the ground, and taking a whole bunch of pictures of different parts of the image (keeping your distance between the camera and the map as constant as possible). You could then stitch them together in the freeware Microsoft ICE, or if that doesn't produce the results you like, you could try the more hands-on approach delivered by Hugin. The latter is also free, but the learning curve is a bit steeper, whereas with ICE all you have to do is throw in your images and have the software spew out a decent stitch.

[randigpanzrall]

Hi Will, je you have a plotting Service around you, they can surely scan your map for some five to ten Bucks, I Think. And of cause with Good resolution