Finding Ardanea - Evolution of a World Map (Making Of)

[Yrda]

Oh - I just saw there's a thread about a world named Ardane. Please don't be confused, these worlds are not associated in any way but name.

So, where do I start?
My world Ardanea wasn't always called Ardanea. Its first name when I invented this fictional world in the year 2000 was CaeLon.
I wasn't happy with that name anymore when I found out it was also being used for a rather gross product, changed it to "Rabérion" later.
Still not happy with it, the world got its final name when I drew the current map. This was in 2016. You might have seen the finished map on deviantArt or elsewhere, where I posted in under my other nick name aeyol or Aeyolscaer.
But I've never shown the chaotic path to this map before.

Although it is an old map, it's the only one I have, so I'd like to show its evolution here as an introduction to where I currently am and what I'll be most likely working on in the future.

I like experimenting with tools/software and styles, and this was what I did here.

2002
first.jpg
I think there was an even older version consisting of ugly digital color blobs, but I think I haven't got a backup of this. How strange.
The one from 2002 was done with colored pencil and watercolors on paper, with a bit of digital manipulation afterwards. I guess I used an ancient version of Micrografx Picture Publisher for that.

2002
second.jpg
For this I'd found a "map painting" tutorial online and used the featured textures for the different ground types. I think I used ancient Paint Shop Pro 7 for that.

around 2003 or 2004
third.jpg
Ink on paper with digital typography. Looks like I wanted to have more "continents" back in those days. The scale was completely random.
edit: If I remember correctly, this was only done on paper because I didn't have a proper computer during that year.

2016

I wanted a new map. And I wanted to experiment. So:
000_shape.jpg
I played around in 3D Software (I guess it was ZBrush) with land shapes by just sculpting around a bit. Based on the old "Daaron" contintent and combining it with former continents which became big or small islands again.


Next step: Shaping the world labyrinth
001_labyrinth3d.jpg
Because I had this idea of the whole world being a labyrinth where gods play their game, I wanted to show this labyrinth in the world map:
Playing around with a black & white labyrinth texture in ZBrush, I somehow managed to create a 3d shape from that texture (of course I forgot how, I'm no 3D artist). Played around with it, pressing half of it under water because the labyrinth is old ...

Next Step: Combining the labyrinth with a rough land mass:
002_labyrinthland.jpg
Not exactly the final land mass shape, but this is the labyrinth shape I used later as an orientation and reference for the drawing.

Next Step: Some texture for a traditional feel
ardanea_000.jpg
After I was happy with the labyrinth shape as a base, I played with water colors on the land mass silhouette to create some background texture for the map.

Next Step: Preparing the map and composition
ardanea_001.jpg
From now on I worked digital only and only in Photoshop. The whole world has three "eye-shaped" sides, one side showing the world we see depicted here.
When drawing this map I was still creating names. What you also see here is a travel path of the protagonist of my (still not finished) novel.

Next Step: Adjusting scaling and aiming for another color sheme:
ardanea_002.jpg
Because I thought the world looked too small in the previous step, with these big labels, I made them smaller and chose another font to keep it readable. Since I don't know anything about map making, I added rather random lines that seemed fancy to me and might have a meaning to the world inhabitants.

Next Step: Adding details, trying a style for the mountains:
ardanea_003.jpg
... and moving things around. I really like that type of mountains, but I realized this isn't the right style for this map.
I didn't want to destroy my labyrinth structure like that.

Next Step: Changing the mountains to support the labyrinth:
ardanea_004.jpg
Almost the final shape for the landmasses, but I wanted some underwater ruins, wasn't happy with the map title and the map frame and so on and so on ...
there were some more steps I'm omitting here, but I don't want to make this too boring.

Next Step: Sketching a frame, adding a title banner and forests:
ardanea_005.jpg
Forests were planned but not shown until now (I omitted an early sketch though where I already placed them).


Final Map:

ardanea_006.jpg
Added more colors, polishing the frame illustration and adding other details.

You can also find the final map in the Gallery.

[Jerron]

Such an amazing journey to the final version of this map! Thanks for sharing the evolution.

[Kellerica]

Already said it over at the Finished maps thread: this is a fantastic piece, and it's fascinating getting a look into the journey that made it happen. You've come a long way with this, clearly.
It's an awesome map with an insanely cool idea behind it - is there a story this worldbuilding project is related to, just out of curiosity?

[Yrda]

Thank you both!

Yes, there is a novel (WIP) that takes place in this world, but the world was there first, and the story isn't finished yet. The base idea for the story - and for the world-labyrinth - was inspired by an older artwork of mine from 2006 (that "ink on paper"-map might be a little bit older then ...), but I didn't start working on the novel before 2011. Unfortunately I haven't even worked on it for several years, but I still plan to finish it some day. It's german though, just like the background information on my outdated website about this project.

[KaiAeon]

A beautiful piece of work. Thank you for sharing the process.

[KMAlexander]

This is absolutely phenomenal and I want to read the book set in such an imaginative world. WOW.

[Yrda]

Thank you!

@KMAlexander
Oh, I guess you'd be disappointed (even if I'd translate it). I'm no "professional" writer and others might just give it up instead of freezing it and hoping to finish it some day, years later. But who knows ...

[Yrda]

I haven't been here for a long while and I'm not ready for really returning yet (because of life ... we all know that). But I just wanted to post the little update that I renamed my world to "Yrdanea", so I will definitely need to update this map.