[Commission] Zoh

[ravells]

This was an unpaid commission I picked up from the Maps requested thread. The person who has requested it seems to have disappeared so there are a few blank spots in it. I was trying my hand at drawing an old style sort of map with hand lettered labels for the towns and cities, but I was a bit of a coward and rather than writing them directly on a printout of the map, I wrote them on paper which I had drawn guidelines on, scanned it, autotraced the labels into vector and bumped them into place - which is why they are mostly horizontal. Repositioning the labels letter by letter onto a curve looked like it would get boring very fast.

I beautified the map in the cheap age old way by using textures and clipart. Not sure if it really works.

I'm kind of liking the labelling though and will work towards drawing it directly on the map, like LukeC does (a braver man than I!). The problem with trying to copy the style of older maps is that you need a huge resolution to read tiny labels.

[themarko]

Nice! Hand lettering is challenge, but it sure is fun. You also get to learn about correcting misspellings.

[jbgibson]

That is just zho wonderful!

it had to be said :-)

[ravells]

lol thanks Zoh much!

The person asking for the map turned up again, and asked for a few edits, so I've replaced the finished map.

[Aenigma]

Yet again you work your magic! Simply stunning work! I'd love to see you try your skills on a map to the book I'm writing.

[atpollard]

Where the islands are blank, is that work yet to be done or ‘unexplored areas’?

I ask because I’ve seen a lot of historic maps of Florida, and cartographers often had the very coast mapped with no idea of what was inland (probably because it was easy to see the coast from a ship but inland travel was difficult).

Something similar might apply to your map.

[Lukc]

A very lovely map and lovely lettering! A trick that might do it for you is to just use curve ruler or french curve (don't know which name is more widely used), that way you can prepare "pre-curved" lettering.

[ravells]

cheers everyone!

@Aenigma - Happy to help!
@atpollard - the blank bits are unexplored areas (I think).
@Lukc - I have a set of french curves and will be pressing them into service!

[arsheesh]

Quite nice indeed. I really like the compass rose and the background art for the scale; those extra detals really add to the aestheic appeal of the map.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Diamond]

Very beautiful. I really think you need to move the pointer on your MojoMeter a bit higher...