Middle Earth

[Sapiento]

This map is now over a year in my Personal Projects folder. I lost motivation during the process and put it aside. Now I like to contiue the work and I want some input from my fellow cartographers.
The map is ok in its current state, but lacks decorations and other things that could act as eye catcher.

Any ideas or proposal?
Any typos on the map?

[ChickPea]

Always happy to see a new Middle Earth map!

I noticed one little typo. You have 'Egegion' where it should be 'Eregion' (label is to the left of Lorien).

Looking forward to seeing how you develop it, though it's looking good already.

[Eilathen]

Cool! I always love to look at these lands...it's the canonical fantasy map, if you will. And I think your interpretation is pretty nice!

On a first look through, I haven't spotted any typos (safe for the one ChickPea pointed out).

As for adornment, hmmm ... I always think some Celtic knot-work around the map as a frame could be atmospherically fitting. Or some Norse style runes and/or knot-work. Those were the major inspirations from which Tolkien borrowed for his own "Britannic folklore" he wrote.

[Sapiento]

Thank you!
Currently I'm leaning towards inlay illustrations for the POI. The Shire, Isengard etc.

[Tiana]

I swear I posted on this because the map is still up in my tabs but maybe I just got too distracted looking at it?? The timing is great, I just watched all 3 extended editions in theatres, so it's nice to have an additional piece of LotR to admire. The map is very good. I'd throw a stroke around the red text, which kind of vanishes into the artwork in some places. A border would be nice. I'd do a Ring text compass of some kind and Dwarf runes on the border myself, with corner icon illustrations for feature places.

[Sapiento]

I swear I posted on this because the map is still up in my tabs but maybe I just got too distracted looking at it?? The timing is great, I just watched all 3 extended editions in theatres, so it's nice to have an additional piece of LotR to admire. The map is very good. I'd throw a stroke around the red text, which kind of vanishes into the artwork in some places. A border would be nice. I'd do a Ring text compass of some kind and Dwarf runes on the border myself, with corner icon illustrations for feature places.

Thank you!

There's quite a lot of empty space on the ocean, so maybe I could use this for the illustrations.
Hobbiton, Rivendell, Isengard, Helm's Deep, Minas Tirith, Mount Doom, Barad-dûr as inlay art work.

[Sapiento]

First illustration. I'm not sure about the frame I used for it.

[QED42]

Some of the label text on the map could really do with a white or other lighter colour outline to make it stand out a bit more against some of the backgrounds where it is blending in and hard to read. Otherwise this is a super impressive map!

[Sapiento]

Some of the label text on the map could really do with a white or other lighter colour outline to make it stand out a bit more against some of the backgrounds where it is blending in and hard to read. Otherwise this is a super impressive map!

Thank you. I've put a light outer glow to the labels.

[JoshStolarz]

First of all I just want to say that this map looks fantastic. Definitely a piece that is worth printing and hanging on the wall. As as already been mentioned, the main thing standing out to me is that the oceans feel a bit empty. You could add several elven style ships sailing into the west, which is an interesting tie to the story. I would just oversize them to make them more like an icon rather than a realistically scaled ship. But honestly this map looks awesome

All the best!
- Josh