Jericho -- Atlas Style Map

[Peter Toth]

Hello Guild,

Jericho started out as a multi-continent conworld of the same name that Charerg was helping me out with about a month or two ago. I started to flesh out the details of the middle continent, but kind of lost interest in this project (more on that later), preferring to go back to the drawing board to improve the realism of my tectonics. However, I didn’t want the last few weeks of labour to go to waste; moreover, I wanted to practice other cartography skills, so I’ve decided to enter this project as a finished map.

I realize that, artistically speaking, the piece lacks balance because it’s densely developed in the northern section but sparsely in the south. My excuse for that relies on local dynamics: a planet with a very small tilt which makes the equatorial regions very hot and humid (with no seasonal variation), therefore this region is unsuitable (or undesirable) for settlement. It may, however, hold precious resources!

I also down-scaled this particular continent by a factor of 67% for the very simple reason that I didn’t want to deal with deserts, which would preclude rivers in the northwest quadrant of the map. (By the way, if any aspect of my worldbuilding doesn’t make sense, please let me know.)

Overall, I really don’t like the shape of this continent, as it reminds me of a witch’s hat, and it’s not even close to Halloween yet. It kind of resulted when I randomly fragmented the original supercontinent, my last entry in the Regional map section. For those who are interested, however, I’ve included the animation of this continental breakup here.

https://www.facebook.com/peter.toth....type=3&theater

And here is the finished map:

Jericho2.png

Please let me know what you think.

Thank you and cheers,

Peter

[Kellerica]

Awesome relief mountains, they look amazing! I actually really like the continent shape, although I guess I see your point about the witch's hat The rivers are absolutely beautiful, did you use Wilbur to get them to look like this? The overall detail of the landscape is really well done.

The thing I don't like are the strong red borders. I realize they probably mark important territories, but as they are they really are way too dominant for my taste, and in places obscure the aforementioned beautiful rivers. The scale, title box and border I think could still use some work, I think they look a bit crude and rushed compared to the gorgeous map beneath them.

A really impressive piece of cartography!

[QED42]

I agree with Kellerica! Great looking map, some really lovely terrain. I'm also not a big fan of the red borders. It is also worth considering that when you do the black and white border like that I think you are supposed to do it so the corners all come out the same colour.

[Robulous]

I like it, really nice terrain! What software did you use? I assume Wilbur, what graphics application?

Couple of comments. Not keen on your choice of fonts, esp for the "Land of Jericho" title - there's no reason here to use a handwriting font, and I forget which font Jericho it looks like one of those default system fonts, yuck.

I'll concur with Kellerica, I don't like the thick red lines. I assume it's roads? Useful on a map but I would make them a bit thinner and less red (they also look a bit pixelated). I'd also add some minor roads to connect towns.

Personally what I do with roads is draw them as a 1-pixel line (I use Photoshop), then add a stroke to see what thickness looks best, or to easily change style. Saves redrawing them.

Final nitpick: if it's so hot and undesirable in the south, why is it called the Balmy Ocean? Balmy means pleasantly warm, not unpleasantly hot. Unless of course it's an ironic name!

[Peter Toth]

Thank you Kellerica, QED42, and Robulous for your positive comments and honest critiques; I will certainly use them to improve my next contribution.

To answer your questions:

The red lines were intended to be roads but, now that you mention, yes they look like political boundaries. I may update the original in a week or so and try some thinner roads for a change; otherwise, I’ll just keep your tip in mind for my next project.

Yes, Kellerica, very good observation regarding the scale, title box and border. I confess that in contrast to rendering the terrain, drawing the roads, and labelling the towns, I rushed through the rest and it certainly shows. Another tip I resolve to keep in mind.

To finalize the terrain and to calculate river paths, I used Wilbur. To do the gradient maps, layers, and other miscellaneous features, GIMP was quite adequate although I would prefer Photoshop, especially because I understand it can do more versatile tectonic rotations among other advanced features. Unfortunately, I cannot afford Photoshop or even a new computer for that matter, and thus I must learn to abide by frequent crashes every time I work on large (i.e. 4000 x 3000) multilayer images. I hope that in the future, perhaps my fantasy cartography hobby may provide an additional source of income, and I’ll be able to afford a new computer (and Photoshop) from my commissions. Until then I have a hungry cat to feed and care for. So yes, many of the fonts are very plain and simple defaults from the GIMP program, and this document size (about 4000 x 3000) is currently straining the limits of my computer. (Can anyone suggest a great PC to run GIMP and Wilbur on, by the way?)

And finally, you got me with the “Balmy Ocean” question, Robulous. When I’m worldbuilding, I’m often in a very creative but not very analytical frame of mind, and in this state I’m usually able to generate a place name in a fraction of a second. Once I have the name pinned down, I can later comb through to see if the name makes sense, then concoct a creative, out-of-the-ordinary explanation if the name happens to be illogical in any way. So in this case, your quick fix of an ironic name sounds perfect. Kind of like “Iceland vs Greenland” or “the Cape of Good Hope” on the south coast of Africa, this name is the exact opposite of what it describes. Perhaps the settlers travelling south were falsely duped into thinking that their destination was a paradise, when it’s actually a hot and muggy sweathouse. This little detail, thanks to your very incisive point, may become an essential plot element if I choose to develop this map into a story.

Again, thanks for the wonderful feedback. I feel very honoured to belong to a class of elite cartographers here on Cartographers Guild. Thanks to the enthusiasm evident in your projects, my passion for cartography is blooming dynamically today. This is the best hobby in the world!

Cheers,

Peter

[arsheesh]

I agree with most of the points made by Kellerica, QED42 and Robulous. In addition I'd add that the repeating pattern along the border is a tad distracting. I think a solid color might be a better choice here. Otherwise great map! As has been pointed out the mountains and land look really good.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh