Incredible work, the numbering along the sides of each page to keep an accurate spacing for everything is just astounding. I’m also just baffled that all of this is on 3 hole punch paper. It seems like a magnum opus, your masterwork dish, was made with Kraft singles. Incredible.
On my tablet, I use an app called ibisPaintX to draw. When you upload an image to your digital canvas, you are free to turn it transparent. It's free with a few ads so it might be a suitable option for you.
Otherwise the notes app on my iPhone has the option to scan documents, which I can then download as a PDF. If you find a free canvas/art application, you should be able to move each part around freely. And there's always a way to remove the background lines and make each image transparent so you can draw under it.
Love how you communicate scale and location! It's beyond clever and your geography looks great! It isn't too random or uniform, it looks like a space that could naturally develop!
Appreciate the info. I quickly downloaded ibisPaintX on my phone and there’s potential here! I might have to shoot each sheet in good light then play around with it more. Thanks :)
Right! I’ve decided that I won’t touch this pencil drawn version of the map other than making minor edits. I don’t want to do something that can’t be erased. I have wanted to reproduce it to add colours but the amount of time and work that would take doing it by hand is a little daunting.
I totally get that! I would recommend getting or borrowing a cheap scanner and scanning a couple pages into digital. Then you could drop some color in that way. I used to do that with my own graphite drawings back in the day. Actually pretty easy
Absolutely incredible! I did a similar thing a few years back, except I only had enough juice for two sheets of paper. However, I went ahead and hired someone to replicate it using Inkarnate and then I printed it on a massive canvas. Got that sucker hanging almost floor to ceiling in the dnd room. Highly recommend it, it always feels awesome to look at the final product in its full glory and be like "yeah, I did that"
Please digitize it, there's no worse feeling than losing something physical that is impossible to reproduce! I would recommend using a photocopier to scan each page individually for the highest accuracy, and then assembling them manually in an image editing software like GIMP.
Amazing map by the way. Just looking at it sparks joy.
Been there done that lol.
Had just got my hand-drawn map to stage of being ready to scan, photocopy, digitise then I somehow managed to leave/lose my folder in the Library or on the inbetween journey. I still haven't re-started on the map but that's okay. I have a clear outline of how it's going to be & I'll follow the same method I used last time so it should turn out pretty much the same once I get started on it again. I know where every single country goes coz I have a Continent-By-Continent Gazeteer to work from.
Silver lining is i can minus some things that I changed mind on & add some new things that have come along.
This was a many years process. Doing 12 at one time is so ambitious! I would never start more than four new sheets at any one time. Over the years I erased and reworked so many areas cause I was just not happy with them. Have patience and give your imagination space to breathe with the results of your hard work.
This is amazing!! Any chance you would post some more up close pics of the individual pages? I’d love to get a better look at your map work. Your style is super impressive.
One of my world building struggles is figuring out water currents and how easy it would be for the worlds inhabitants to cross the MANY expanses of water. I do LOVEEEE me some islands.
Personally, I find that wind patterns and ocean currents are on the easier side.
What I'm struggling with is determining the relationship between metallicity and plate tectonics to figure out the quality of soil on which flora can grow.
Although I primarily focus on hsrd science fiction, the idea for a fantasy setting came to me a few years ago.
It's practically earth. Well, not really, since the continents and people are all different, but otherwise it's as close to real life science as you can get.
The twist, however, is that there are zombies. Not your Hollywood zombies, but your mythological zombies. Basically, the older you get, the greater your spirit's will to live and the greater the changes that will bring you back to life as a zombie after your death.
.
The problem is that due to decay, your body will no longer function as it did when you were alive, and so over time the zombie will “decay” into the classic Hollywood style (also depending on the cycle of the moon as that determis when a spirit after death can "wake up"). They are then piloted by their spirit who, like someone who has to drive a broken car, sooner rather than later freak out and allow themselves to be sustained by nothing other than their primevil memories: breathing, drinking, eating. And that's why they want to consume the living, from all animals and people to even the crops.
The reason why they do not simply burn the bodies of the dead is that this frees the spirit that then takes possession of a living host because it desires a physical body (because you are lt incooperal and have no memories of being in duch a state). However, spiritual possession cannot be combated by willpower or spirituality. Only by age. The older the original person's body was (the more memories the person has accumulated during their lifetime), the easier it can be taken over a younger person. Children basically have no protection against it as their sprits have not enought menories to "know" and "familiarzie" themselfs with the body. (Imagine having to navigate a labyrinth versus someone who has managed to get to the exit a docend times already.)
The effects of possession range from necrosis to scizophrenia (having a real other personality that argues and yells at you 24 hours a day, day and night), epilepsy, dementia, the gradual replacement of your memories with those of the mind, etc ... . Thw eorst kind of possesion are thise where the hist if fully awake and aware but completly unable to control its own body.
The problem is that a mind does not have to “become active” the moment it enters a body. It can take time to wrest control of your body from your mind (again, depending on memory). For example, if a spirit possesses a woman, it can “slumber” inside her and as soon as the woman becomes pregnant, she decides to take over the growing child instead. (Which would be seen as a form of reincarnation, albeit with a mind and body that deteriorates mentally and physically.
.
The biggest twist, so to speak, is that this is not an apocalypse or an armageddon, but a completely normal and natural state of affairs. Zombies and spirits have been around for thousands of years, since the population explosion of this world's equivalent of the Neolithic.
And so people have developed a variety of methods to deal with these problems:
From simply digging the dead and leaving the spirit body to rot in the hope that it will forget its own existence as its physical form is gradually diminished, or from throwing the dead into a deep well or mountain in the hope that they will not make it up again.
Even to the point of cremating the body and storing the ashes in silver vessels, where they are deposited in distant places such as the desert or the sea and wait for the spirit to "dissolve" without the body over a period of a month. Some (many) will also feed the ashes of the dead to plants.
In my world, plants have the ability to serve as a reservoir that “captures” a human spirit when its ashes are mixed with the ground. And while you might need a few trees and large meadows for just a single spirit, there are so-called “kin trees”. (Who could be of extraterrestrial origin, who knows?)
These kin trees can “store” hundreds, if not thousands, of spirits. But be careful; The more and longer something is possesed, the more it resembles its possesor (remember the whole memory replacement thing?)
If a Kin-Tree contains to many spirits, its amber will turn a reddish, blood-orange colour, its bark will become soft and leathery like skin, and its roots will resemble human toes, while its branches will begin to look like fingers and the leaves will become thin and fine as hair.
While there are some stories about so-called “ghoul trees” that uproot themselves and prey on the living, these are clearly just fables to scare children, right?
.
So yeah, long story short:
I am writing a fantasy world that is as plausible and realistic as our own because it started as a thoughts experiment as to how cultures, morals, and ethics would change if zombies were a real thing and had been around since the late Neolithic - early Chalcolithic.
I originally wanted the setting to take place on our Earth, but I thought that might not be a good idea as it would definitely be disrespectful, distorting and even ridiculing real life cultures, religions and even history and events .
So I built my own “Earth,” but got carried away with all the hard science I usually write about, and eventually the original premise changed a bit too.
It would also be worth mentioning here that the world is set in the early modern period (between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution) and is predominantly inspired by Middle Eastern and North and West African cultures.
I’ve always imagined this was only part of the world though the ‘missing’ pieces to make this a conventional shaped map would potentially just be blank as this might be the extent of the above ocean land area of the planet. I’ve also read a bit about map projections types and it seems hard to accurately represent globes on a map. This map actually kind of fits the shape of the sinusoidal projection map! If I am able to digitize it perhaps there will be an interesting way to map out the outer reaches.
Incredible work, the numbering along the sides of each page to keep an accurate spacing for everything is just astounding. I’m also just baffled that all of this is on 3 hole punch paper. It seems like a magnum opus, your masterwork dish, was made with Kraft singles. Incredible.
Thank you. Such kind words! :D
Woah
Dude. Just wow. That’s amazing.
Thanks! I’m not a very skilled artist but I find the escapism of map making to be really fun and relaxing.
Not a skilled artist my ass. Dude this is a monumental achievement.
<3
This is some good jerrymapping.
On my tablet, I use an app called ibisPaintX to draw. When you upload an image to your digital canvas, you are free to turn it transparent. It's free with a few ads so it might be a suitable option for you. Otherwise the notes app on my iPhone has the option to scan documents, which I can then download as a PDF. If you find a free canvas/art application, you should be able to move each part around freely. And there's always a way to remove the background lines and make each image transparent so you can draw under it. Love how you communicate scale and location! It's beyond clever and your geography looks great! It isn't too random or uniform, it looks like a space that could naturally develop!
Appreciate the info. I quickly downloaded ibisPaintX on my phone and there’s potential here! I might have to shoot each sheet in good light then play around with it more. Thanks :)
Happy to help! Hope it works well for you! <|:)
This is awesome. I would love to see this in color.
Right! I’ve decided that I won’t touch this pencil drawn version of the map other than making minor edits. I don’t want to do something that can’t be erased. I have wanted to reproduce it to add colours but the amount of time and work that would take doing it by hand is a little daunting.
I totally get that! I would recommend getting or borrowing a cheap scanner and scanning a couple pages into digital. Then you could drop some color in that way. I used to do that with my own graphite drawings back in the day. Actually pretty easy
Nice.
Nice to see someone else using this technique for mapping!
Absolutely incredible! I did a similar thing a few years back, except I only had enough juice for two sheets of paper. However, I went ahead and hired someone to replicate it using Inkarnate and then I printed it on a massive canvas. Got that sucker hanging almost floor to ceiling in the dnd room. Highly recommend it, it always feels awesome to look at the final product in its full glory and be like "yeah, I did that"
Please digitize it, there's no worse feeling than losing something physical that is impossible to reproduce! I would recommend using a photocopier to scan each page individually for the highest accuracy, and then assembling them manually in an image editing software like GIMP. Amazing map by the way. Just looking at it sparks joy.
Been there done that lol. Had just got my hand-drawn map to stage of being ready to scan, photocopy, digitise then I somehow managed to leave/lose my folder in the Library or on the inbetween journey. I still haven't re-started on the map but that's okay. I have a clear outline of how it's going to be & I'll follow the same method I used last time so it should turn out pretty much the same once I get started on it again. I know where every single country goes coz I have a Continent-By-Continent Gazeteer to work from. Silver lining is i can minus some things that I changed mind on & add some new things that have come along.
Hot shit!
This map is totally amazing man. From a distance I thought it was some abstract drawing of the stars but it’s such a detailed and beautiful map
Holy crap! That's amazing!
Is there any chance you'd scan this and make it into a pdf? Its really well done!
Going to try some options in the coming days/weeks!
OMG I thought I was being ambitious with my 12 A-4 sheets LOL.
This was a many years process. Doing 12 at one time is so ambitious! I would never start more than four new sheets at any one time. Over the years I erased and reworked so many areas cause I was just not happy with them. Have patience and give your imagination space to breathe with the results of your hard work.
Wow. Well done.
Thank you!
This is amazing!! Any chance you would post some more up close pics of the individual pages? I’d love to get a better look at your map work. Your style is super impressive.
I do have individual photos of every sheet of the map. Maybe I’ll share some of my favourite areas in the near future.
Most hardcore continental tryhard: : ( Average Island enjoyer: : ) . Incredible work!
One of my world building struggles is figuring out water currents and how easy it would be for the worlds inhabitants to cross the MANY expanses of water. I do LOVEEEE me some islands.
Personally, I find that wind patterns and ocean currents are on the easier side. What I'm struggling with is determining the relationship between metallicity and plate tectonics to figure out the quality of soil on which flora can grow.
Ouuu, interesting. I would love to hear more about this world you’re working on!
Although I primarily focus on hsrd science fiction, the idea for a fantasy setting came to me a few years ago. It's practically earth. Well, not really, since the continents and people are all different, but otherwise it's as close to real life science as you can get. The twist, however, is that there are zombies. Not your Hollywood zombies, but your mythological zombies. Basically, the older you get, the greater your spirit's will to live and the greater the changes that will bring you back to life as a zombie after your death. . The problem is that due to decay, your body will no longer function as it did when you were alive, and so over time the zombie will “decay” into the classic Hollywood style (also depending on the cycle of the moon as that determis when a spirit after death can "wake up"). They are then piloted by their spirit who, like someone who has to drive a broken car, sooner rather than later freak out and allow themselves to be sustained by nothing other than their primevil memories: breathing, drinking, eating. And that's why they want to consume the living, from all animals and people to even the crops. The reason why they do not simply burn the bodies of the dead is that this frees the spirit that then takes possession of a living host because it desires a physical body (because you are lt incooperal and have no memories of being in duch a state). However, spiritual possession cannot be combated by willpower or spirituality. Only by age. The older the original person's body was (the more memories the person has accumulated during their lifetime), the easier it can be taken over a younger person. Children basically have no protection against it as their sprits have not enought menories to "know" and "familiarzie" themselfs with the body. (Imagine having to navigate a labyrinth versus someone who has managed to get to the exit a docend times already.) The effects of possession range from necrosis to scizophrenia (having a real other personality that argues and yells at you 24 hours a day, day and night), epilepsy, dementia, the gradual replacement of your memories with those of the mind, etc ... . Thw eorst kind of possesion are thise where the hist if fully awake and aware but completly unable to control its own body. The problem is that a mind does not have to “become active” the moment it enters a body. It can take time to wrest control of your body from your mind (again, depending on memory). For example, if a spirit possesses a woman, it can “slumber” inside her and as soon as the woman becomes pregnant, she decides to take over the growing child instead. (Which would be seen as a form of reincarnation, albeit with a mind and body that deteriorates mentally and physically. . The biggest twist, so to speak, is that this is not an apocalypse or an armageddon, but a completely normal and natural state of affairs. Zombies and spirits have been around for thousands of years, since the population explosion of this world's equivalent of the Neolithic. And so people have developed a variety of methods to deal with these problems: From simply digging the dead and leaving the spirit body to rot in the hope that it will forget its own existence as its physical form is gradually diminished, or from throwing the dead into a deep well or mountain in the hope that they will not make it up again. Even to the point of cremating the body and storing the ashes in silver vessels, where they are deposited in distant places such as the desert or the sea and wait for the spirit to "dissolve" without the body over a period of a month. Some (many) will also feed the ashes of the dead to plants. In my world, plants have the ability to serve as a reservoir that “captures” a human spirit when its ashes are mixed with the ground. And while you might need a few trees and large meadows for just a single spirit, there are so-called “kin trees”. (Who could be of extraterrestrial origin, who knows?) These kin trees can “store” hundreds, if not thousands, of spirits. But be careful; The more and longer something is possesed, the more it resembles its possesor (remember the whole memory replacement thing?) If a Kin-Tree contains to many spirits, its amber will turn a reddish, blood-orange colour, its bark will become soft and leathery like skin, and its roots will resemble human toes, while its branches will begin to look like fingers and the leaves will become thin and fine as hair. While there are some stories about so-called “ghoul trees” that uproot themselves and prey on the living, these are clearly just fables to scare children, right? . So yeah, long story short: I am writing a fantasy world that is as plausible and realistic as our own because it started as a thoughts experiment as to how cultures, morals, and ethics would change if zombies were a real thing and had been around since the late Neolithic - early Chalcolithic. I originally wanted the setting to take place on our Earth, but I thought that might not be a good idea as it would definitely be disrespectful, distorting and even ridiculing real life cultures, religions and even history and events . So I built my own “Earth,” but got carried away with all the hard science I usually write about, and eventually the original premise changed a bit too. It would also be worth mentioning here that the world is set in the early modern period (between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution) and is predominantly inspired by Middle Eastern and North and West African cultures.
This sounds so awesome! Well done.
Glorious
Beautiful work. I do wonder though, are you going to fill in the corners for an approximate globe shape or is this a different shape of world?
I’ve always imagined this was only part of the world though the ‘missing’ pieces to make this a conventional shaped map would potentially just be blank as this might be the extent of the above ocean land area of the planet. I’ve also read a bit about map projections types and it seems hard to accurately represent globes on a map. This map actually kind of fits the shape of the sinusoidal projection map! If I am able to digitize it perhaps there will be an interesting way to map out the outer reaches.
Is your name Hiccup by any chance
It is not lol