The Erythraean Sea (Commission)

[Vulpes]

A commission I completed for a recently published novel. The Erythraean Sea is based on the Red Sea as the novel takes place in a future where humanity's decedents now reside underwater. I used various bathymetric maps to determine shelf/abyss/mountain/island placements and ecological surveys to workout where to place seagrass forests. It was a bit of a surprise being offered a commission so soon but I learnt a lot and it definitely pushed me to consider the stylistic choices involved in ways I might not have otherwise.

I'd never attempted an underwater map before so it came with several interesting challenges and decisions. I also wanted to use a different 'coast' style to try and accentuate the surrounding land/islands and apparently at the time I thought 1000s of dots was a great idea! My consequential hand cramp begged to differ...

I'd love to hear ways others might have found to convey things like undersea/other odd environs and as always, any feedback is greatly appreciated

The Erythraean Sea.jpg

All hand-drawn; started with a rough pencil plan before inking with fineliners; 130gsm A4 (~8"x11"); December 2020.

[AriochIV]

I looked at the map before I read the description, so I was a bit baffled by what I was looking at.

The lines and dots you have representing the coast I'm more used to seeing representing the water, so that was an initial point of confusion. Depicting an underwater map is tough, but I think I might reverse the dots to the water side, and then include a few recognizable land features (beaches, cliffs, hills) outside the water area to help establish which part is water and which is land.

The only other suggesting I would make would be to add some variation the altitude/depths of the underwater cliffs to the depressed central area. Currently it looks very uniform, as if it had been artificially dug out.