Ithaque - Foyer du royaume d'Ulysse

[BlindBlake]

I decided to mix two of my passion, cartography and antiquity, and try to make a map of Ithaca according to Homer's Illiad and Odyssey. Odysseus and Telemachus sometimes talk about landmarks and main cities, I used the V. Bérard's comments to create that map (considering that today's Ithaca is Homer's Ithaca, that not really is sure). This could be considered as a topographic map as it's the only feature represented. I didn't want to overload it, but I must admit that Ithaca is not as rocky and mountainous as my map represents it (let's say it's because of geological evolution... ).
I also made the choice to name places in french, that's because I prefer french traduction instead of english ones (that's totally personal of course) and because I didn't want to push as far as writing down everything in ancient greek.

Comments are welcome!

Ithaque.jpg

[Ilanthar]

Nice map! Good drawing but I would have loved to see a colored version.

[Francissimo]

Nice work on this, particularly the linework to depict relief.

[ThomasR]

Beau boulot ! There's an atlas flavor to your map that I like a lot !

[BlindBlake]

Thanks for your comments!

Ilanthar : I'd like to make a coloured version as well, but to create proper shading, I think using a graphic tablet is much smoother, but I don't have one yet...

Francissimo : Thanks a lot, I always enjoy drawing relief

thomrey : That's what I was aiming for, although I'm not really pleased with the sea, grey shades are too messy and the scanner really enhanced those messy parts

[AzurePlanet]

Very nice map!
Again, I like a lot the way you managed shading. Very effective and subtle.
What is the size of the paper sheet?

[BlindBlake]

Thanks AzurePlanet. For now, I only use A4 paper (21x29.7cm) mainly to create something quickly and keep my motivation.

[ThomasR]

I'm not really pleased with the sea, grey shades are too messy and the scanner really enhanced those messy parts

Why not selecting the water only, copy and paste it into a new layer and then play with light and contrast ? You can even erase it partially to get something more gradient-y.

[BlindBlake]

Why not selecting the water only, copy and paste it into a new layer and then play with light and contrast ? You can even erase it partially to get something more gradient-y.

That's a good idea, I see if I can get it working, thanks for the tip.