Western Naren, First Hand Painted Map

[EverKing]

MAP_008.JPG

I've doodled rough pencil maps over the years but have never before sat down to try to make a complete (albeit regional) map in full color.

This is gouache and Micron pen on the matte side of a 22" x 27" poster board. Sorry for the image quality, it was captured with my iPhone. The edges were cropped a little due to page curling (poor media for watercolor). One interesting effect I discovered with water on matte poster board was the "curling" of the surface which created a quite pleasing texture and uneven splotchy effect which I tried to use to my advantage.

As it was intended for "internal" use only for a quickly adapted D&D campaign there are certain elements and place names taken from other sources (including this site) in an effort to save some of my time in the world-building prior to the start of the campaign. My hand lettering was hurried and not properly measured so it isn't great but passable for our uses. I had no intention of painting it originally--rather it was just going to be a partially colored ink map. However, in an attempt at covering a few mistakes I decided to throw down some base colors. That didn't look quite right, so I added more layers until I got it in the passable condition you see here. I took pictures throughout its progression so it is kinda' fun to see how it came together.

Geographically, there are some errors and other features that only make sense in the view of the larger world. The various mountains, both the high chains and the lower, eroded, chains are certainly not to the proper scale but rather approximations of the regions. The Maldisc Sea is not connected to any ocean but rather has an actual out-flow to the coast off the east side of the map (via the Mirror Marshes and the River Richesse). I only drew the major rivers, excluding their many tributaries. I don't like the way the major glaciated valleys in the Midland Mts turned out but at least I know what they are. The mountains in the NE are extremely rough, to say the least.

Overall, though, I am fairly please for my first "completed" map (less the key, which I intended to add on the west in the place left blank for it) and by first foray in using gouache and ink.

[jshoer]

Nice map! I really like the mountain chains, especially the ones in the upper left, and the color variation on the plains looks very good.

[Diamond]

That's really beautiful. Am I weird for really liking how the red lettering and icons look against the other colors?