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Here is a small map I draw recently. The map is hand drawn to paper, in a style of 1950’s atlas. The lines and texts are drawn using mainly Sakura Pigma Microns, the colouring of land areas with Koi watercolor brush pens and the colouring of the sea with Promarkers. The size of the map is 7 cm x 7 cm without the frame, and the scale is 1:3 000 000, so the area shown is 210 km x 210 km.

I made this map to test the colouring I have planned to use in my bigger project, wip here. Drawing by hand, the colour is the last thing to add, so I had to make sure that the colours would look good. I think they are. The only problem was that I wasn’t aware that some of my pens were not water-resistant, so they got messed with the watercolour pens and the colour is not as clean as it should be. I have to change these pens for the bigger map.

I also wanted to test the lettering, both the different fonts and styles and the writing itself, before I start to write on the bigger map. The lettering is quite fun, but I have to practice it a bit more. I have to admit that I put too much named places on the map.

It would be very interesting to hear comments about the overall look of the test map, the colours, and whether the labels are readable and informative, or anything that comes to your mind. Thank you in advance!