Rant

Once again I find myself in the claws of artistic crisis. I have been away from mapping for some time now and find myself both bereft of motivation and for the first time also of inspiration. To add to that, I have discovered that I don't really make maps. Let me explain with a couple of pictures. Here's one of a recent work that I completed



Now I am happy with the way it turned out. It fits the story I am trying to tell and it looks pleasing, ...

As some of you may have noticed, I have a habit of disappearing occasionally. I will go like gang busters for 6 or so months and then for months at at time my footfalls will seldom be heard on the floors of the Guild. My creativity waxes and wanes as the phases of the moon. I've always been like that. I guess this is why my Kingdom of Shendenflar Campaign Setting has taken nearly 30 years to get to a basic level of "completion". I love the work and the creative energy that mapping entails ...

It's not a new idea. It's brought up quite frequently in discussions here at the forum. A map in it's most basic form is a way to distribute information. Here is point A here is point B and here is what in between those two points and how far it is from A to B. See? I just made a map and didn't draw a thing. Obviously it isn't always that simple. Sometimes we need to know about point C or even point X to make an informed choice on where to go. We create worlds that require climate data and geological ...

Ah yes the story... If you follow my work you know that for me a map is just another way to tell a story. I fill them with bits and bobs and all kinds of "fluff" that helps the viewer see my vision. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it. One of the things I'm not so good at is making it all fit together and make sense. My worst most immediate problem is scale. I hate it I struggle with it and it makes my most "clever" maps at best useless and at worst garbage. I do a lot of ...

If your anything like me, you probably spend a good deal of time looking at your maps. Just looking. A zoom in here an zoom out there a good long stare at this and maybe a long unfoucused look at the whole thing while strory or adventure ideas run unfiltered through your mind. I really enjoy that part of map making I also think it is the most important and most irritating phase of the process. Oh it's not so bad when you are just starting out. "I'll need a mountain there and a city there etc ...