Sylarus - Parchment Style Kingdom map (First Map of the Year!)

[Arcane Atlas]

Wow it’s been a hot minute since I last posted here! I’m trying to get back onto the cartography horse this year after a slow second half of 2022 due to a rough few months dealing with some personal stuff - and here’s my first completed map of the year!

This was for a returning commission client who I’ve made 3 maps for in the past, and this is definitely my favourite so far. I wanted to shake my style up a little and try some new things, and I definitely think I’ll be exploring this direction more in future.

Drawn in Procreate on iPad Pro and finished off in Photoshop for text and textures.

Sylarus FINAL (small).jpg

[Ifrix]

Really loving the dark texturing on this and especially like the style of the mountains
Glad to see you back!

[Kellerica]

Really love the atmosphere on this one, as I think I already said on Twitter... I always love heavy texturing and darker tones like this. Really digging the title scroll too. I'm personally not a huge fan of Northumbria - it's one of those hit and miss typefaces that has a few downright ugly characters that make it a bit too hard to work into nice typography even if the overall look is not too bad. But that's really me nitpicking, font choices in general are very subjective.

Very nice map all in all! Glad to see you around again.

[Arcane Atlas]

Thank you both for the kind words!

Really love the atmosphere on this one, as I think I already said on Twitter... I always love heavy texturing and darker tones like this. Really digging the title scroll too.

I was actually very much inspired by the heavy texturing on your own parchment maps here! I always find them so captivating.

I'm personally not a huge fan of Northumbria - it's one of those hit and miss typefaces that has a few downright ugly characters that make it a bit too hard to work into nice typography even if the overall look is not too bad.

I definitely agree that it has some really iffy characters - looking back on this now the double L in 'Cealla' especially bothers me. I find that most "handwritten" style fonts don't look quite right, so I normally opt for a serif. The client was looking for a calligraphy feel here so I went with it, but I always struggle with font choices - I need to find myself a few reliable go-to fonts I think!

[Kellerica]

I was actually very much inspired by the heavy texturing on your own parchment maps here! I always find them so captivating.

I'm flattered!

I definitely agree that it has some really iffy characters - looking back on this now the double L in 'Cealla' especially bothers me. I find that most "handwritten" style fonts don't look quite right, so I normally opt for a serif. The client was looking for a calligraphy feel here so I went with it, but I always struggle with font choices - I need to find myself a few reliable go-to fonts I think!

Looking at the font again, I actually think I personally mostly take issue with the capitals of that particular one, rather than the lowercase characters. Not that it matters, but I'm a font nerd. I should thank you, this actually made go look at the font in my library and I ended up giving the collection the clean it's been needing for two years!

[Diamond]

I really dig this. I'm a fan of B&W or sepia/parchment-y maps in general, so this one hits my sweet spot. I personally don't have a problem with the font choice (like Kell said, its pretty subjective), but the thing I LOVE about this map are the mountains! On point!

[Arcane Atlas]

the thing I LOVE about this map are the mountains! On point!

Thank you!! This was me attempting a brand new mountain style and I'm glad it worked out - I love how they look and I'll definitely be sticking with it!