What's the longest you've ever spent on one map?

[J.Edward]

I can't even imagine how much time some of these maps have taken.
I have some that haven't been posted here that take the cake. Some maps are hard to finish cus they take so long.
I did a very large and involved height map which led to several other maps, concluding with a fully rendered satellite map.
Those spanned 3 years or so. I have no idea how much time went into each. It was a lot though.

It definitely surpassed the time spent on Haerlech, which was long.
I've had some other client maps I haven't shown that are also very long running.
Usually when I do the style I did for Nahadua, Qaliste, Anthropos, and such, it takes a very long time.
I tend not to post them for several reasons. But those definitely take the longest.

[MistyBeee]

Hmm... I don't have precise answers, sadly...

I'm pretty sure the map I worked on which took the most hours was a huge map of my own fantasy world (something around 4x4 meters / discarded after we decided major geographic changes), but it was around 2005 and sadly I have no clue about how much time I spent on it. Definitely over 400 though. However, I keep a log about the time spent on my commissions and for this, Kingkel is the winner, with 200 hours. Another commission I'm just finishing those days needed 335 hours (and probably a few more with possible upcoming edits), but it's a series of 2 maps in the same style and universe, and as I worked on them at the exact same time, I logged the hours at the same time for both.

For the longuest span of time... At the moment 1 year or such, also a commission, paused for budget reasons. My own personal maps are usually faster, as I hate having unfinished work and feeling guilty about them. My only exception is the Guild World map which will take longer on purpose : started in May 2018, this map is made to help me learn to take my time and work only for pleasure ^^

[swiss]

Interesting answers everyone

MistyBeee - I like your bee avatar. Did you make that yourself?

[MistyBeee]

MistyBeee - I like your bee avatar. Did you make that yourself?

Thanks, and of course I did
The bee itself is inspired from a typical antique symbol I found once in an old book and always loved.

[JoshStolarz]

Holy crap guys. I don't know what you're charging...but it's not enough haha

I think the longest I've spent on a map is only 50 hours for a commission that also required a decent amount of research as part of the process.

- Josh

[Jaxilon]

Holy crap guys. I don't know what you're charging...but it's not enough haha

- Josh

That's what I think whenever I toy with the idea of trying to do it for a real living. Either I need to dramatically and exponentially be faster than I am or I definitely need to charge more than most people would be willing or capable of paying. Especially when there are many artists willing to work for peanuts.

One of my favorite quotes when it comes to being paid for making a map comes from Napoleon Dynamite, "that's like a dollar an HOUR!" <-- and that's kinda what it feels like if I do the math. Of course, a large part of why I bother with it is because I enjoy it and that's worth quite a bit.