I like the fact that you didn't colorize the sea. It's way more effective so !
Very nice job !
Hi folks,
A couple of weeks ago I finished this map for a former client. Tried to do a WIP thread like in the good old days but did not stick to it unfortunately.
Thalassios lighter post.jpg
The map shows a mostly tropical continent with a lot of pirate activity hence the navigational chart choice.
A wink to the old days too, the map is said to have been charted by Hattam Reyes, the Scrivener of the Ancients
Hope you like it !
Cheers !
I like the fact that you didn't colorize the sea. It's way more effective so !
Very nice job !
I wondered what happened to this one! Really nice work; me like.
Haven't been around for quite a while, but I keep lurking. Just had to pop along here and say that this is great work Tom!
1. First impression is that the edges of the map utterly dominate the eye. That part of the map is quite fabulous.
2. The colors in play on this map are subtle, inviting. They lure the eye in, whispering that a stay is in order. My eyes wander across this map in a leisurely fashion. It's a peaceful-looking map.
3. Nothing about it makes pirates come to mind. Nautical, perhaps, but not pirates.
4. One population center marked on the entire map. Maybe that's supposed to be an indicator of a pirate hideout. But it is a lonely place, visually insignificant in the grand scheme of this map's visual delights. It's very easy to overlook, to miss it entirely.
5. Are those volcanoes just right of the center of the map? Tads of orange - perhaps indicators of lava? So very hard to tell, though. Such small details that blend in so well (perhaps a little too well, but that's just my own personal taste, not an indictment of your choice to render them that way).
6. Other than the bold Thalassios in the bottom right, which draws the eye to it, this map has very little use for text, overall. Lots of forests, plenty of mountains, none of which were worthy of text to implant them more firmly in the mind.
7. All things considered, it's a lovely map - more lovely than memorable, I'm afraid. But that seems to have been a conscious decision on the part of the cartographer. It looks better than most fantasy maps that I've seen, but for all of its visual grandeur, it doesn't really capture my imagination.
8. This map is awash in coastlines, almost everywhere that my eyes look. This enhances this map's overall beauty several fold.
9. The rhumb lines (or whatever the preferred term is) are the icing of this map's cake, and make short work of the map's white space, which predominantly takes the form of seas on this map. This map would probably look quite naked without them.
10. The compass rose in the upper left corner of the map is gargantuan in size, but it fits quite well, there. It is oversized and has visual heft, yet seems right at hand, there, imbuing the map with more visual balance, overall.