Originally Posted by
GrimFinger
Quite a time-consuming feat to put this one together, I'd imagine.
Comparing different maps to one another is always an exercise in apples and oranges. Thus, while this particular map isn't one of my personal favorite maps that I have encountered along the way, that should not be confused with the beauty and grace that slowly but surely seeps from this cartographic beast. It truly is quite an accomplishment, in its own right.
I'm not moved to jump up and down about the color scheme in play, but that's a far cry from saying that the color scheme is inherently deficient, for it is not. It's subdued. It's sedate. It's staid. Yet, it works well, together.
Here, you're inspired by another mapmaker, and by extension, their style. It required a lot of discipline to populate this map with its abundance of places. Rather than allowing this behemoth of work to wear you down, you endured, and the realm of cartography is the better for it. I can't imagine how many hours that you sank into this, not even counting the time that you likely invested in just the refinement, alone - what some might consider to be the finishing stage(s).
The street names are all legible. A simple, but effective, use of text to enhance the aesthetic appeal of a map that is visually shy by nature. Such simple text, yet quite demonstrable of the subtle effectiveness of not overplaying one's visual hand. There's a lot of simplicity crafted into this map, yet it overflows with visual texture.
The dotted lines really boost the visual beauty of the vast expanses of space below the city. Much could be gleaned from this technique, alone, for up and coming fantasy cartographers.
Back to the color, what happens many times in the hands of less-experienced cartographers is that they allow color to go to their head. Specifically, their resort to and their utilization of color. Here, you are a master of it. he eye isn't set upon by ruffian colors run amok. Instead, this map is easy on the eyes. No rainbow of colors raining down from Color Heaven. No flood of neon colors that viciously strangle the eyes. Rather, this is a map whose chosen implementation of color allows the viewer to pause and to contemplate upon what one's eyes behold.
The border work, the edging of the map - not overly done, but simultaneously, not plain Jane by any stretch of the imagination. The uneven edge of the map is in sharp, but complimentary contrast to the diagonally-laced border - which collectively, demonstrate some degree of mastery of the use of shapes to enhance the cartographic undertaking at hand. Behold! The four corners of the map's border, alone, give away a mark of talent. The edges of that parchment atop which the map sits are uneven, but not the four corners. They're lobbed off, straight as can be. But that, alone, was not enough for this cartographer, for he adorned those very same four corners with ornamental squares that jut past the lobbed-off parchment corners of the parchment. How boldly they protrude, daring the eye to look!
Specks of imperfection are everywhere to be found on this map, imbuing it with an artificial sense of age. It looks old - and that is a gift from the Cartographic Beyond!
The smaller boxed-in area at the top left,, the large and wide map key at the bottom - these help to visually balance the map, where the whole shish kebab meets the eye. A map, you see, isn't just a drawing of a place. At least, in the absolute vast majority of instances, it shouldn't be. And nowhere is this more true than with maps of the fantasy variety. For the realm of fantasy runs the gamut of the human imagination. Why starve the eye unnecessarily, when what the eye naturally gravitates towards is visual feast, not famine.
If this map is anything, it is visually balanced. And that, my friend, is no curse.
Rizon
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