Shelly Shapiro's mountains were probably an early influence on my mountains, as were her fen markers. (The little tufty plant things.) I went over to the bookshelf and grabbed my Belgariad omnibus, and sure enough, they're much like I remember.
Picking one is much to hard to do! I have a huge folder of maps I've collected -- some for reference purposes, some because they're just beautiful...
How about these two from deviantART?
http://jocarra.deviantart.com/art/Th...-Map-114497940
http://fragless.deviantart.com/art/M...Eltar-28208522
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“It is not down in any map; true places never are.” (Herman Melville)
“A good map is both a useful tool and a magic carpet to far away places." (unknown)
Shelly Shapiro's mountains were probably an early influence on my mountains, as were her fen markers. (The little tufty plant things.) I went over to the bookshelf and grabbed my Belgariad omnibus, and sure enough, they're much like I remember.
Very good pick StillCypher!
Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.
Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...
I'm not sure if I can pick a favourite but the black & white maps of Middle Earth (from the books) and the Harn maps certainly had a huge impact on my own style.
Cheers,
Tim
Paratime Design Cartography
"Do infants have as much fun in infancy as adults do in adultery?" - Groucho Marx
I love this city-map from Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
It's one of those instances where just by looking at the map, you are introduced to the character that is the city itself - as sprawling and as complex in psyche as it's streets and suburbs.
Regards,
RK
The Perdido street station map is one of my faves as well.
The map from The Hobbit. Probably the first fantasy map I ever saw, introducing me to the very concept of a map of someplace imagined, and still among the most enthralling I've ever seen. Deciphering the runes for myself was a big part of it, but the style was beautiful -- particularly Erebor itself, and the flourishes like the spider web -- and the way it was bigger than the area it actually depicted, with references like "the Withered Heath, whence came the Great Worms", just made it a truly awesome map and a place from which the mind could begin to wander.
"Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks..."
Last edited by isomage; 05-24-2009 at 08:46 AM.
My random map generators and GIMP scripts: http://axiscity.hexamon.net/users/isomage/
The Perdido Street Station map is pretty sweet. (Good book too, for people who haven't read it.)
But yeah, the map from the hobbit was the one which seared mapping into my soul...closely followed by the LOTR map. My brother had the hardbacks with the big fold out onionskin paper maps at the back, they were gorgeous.