Outlander Map of Scotland

[aeshnidae]

I mapped England for my recent challenge entry, Camelot, and I mapped Ireland's fairy and folk tales as a birthday gift to my mom (we're not Irish but she has a beloved childhood book about Irish folk tales), so I decided to make it a trio and map Scotland via Outlander. I haven't watched the show but I enjoyed the books a lot.

Here are my first two maps. The Ireland water color is the color of my mom's childhood book.

England & Ireland.jpg

And here's my WIP for Scotland, where the water color is inspired by the blue of Jacobite banners. The corner art and compass are from the Outlander series book covers, except for the lion from the Scottish royal standard.

Outlander map v2 (sm).jpg

My plan is to add various icons relating to plot points in the books. (I'm forcing myself to keep practicing drawing things and this is a good way to do it.) Feedback is most welcome! I'm not opposed to making some corrections on the first two maps, either.

[Texas Jake]

Very nice maps. I really like the borders and the style of the maps.

[MistyBeee]

It's a great set of maps, and I especially love the Ireland one, Aeshnidae ! What a lovely gift ^^

[aeshnidae]

Very nice maps. I really like the borders and the style of the maps.

Thanks! I drew the border for my Fillory commission; I wanted it to look like the border of the Narnia map that I have from childhood. I re-purposed it for my Camelot map and then it just made sense to use it for the trio of UK/UK-adjacent countries.

It's a great set of maps, and I especially love the Ireland one, Aeshnidae ! What a lovely gift ^^

Thanks, MistyBeee! I printed the Ireland map on rolled canvas for my mom's 70th birthday. She loved it and was also very surprised...I think this is the first time in 30 years that I've made her a gift!

[ChickPea]

That Ireland map is very pretty, and such a lovely gift for your mum.

Your Scotland map is looking good too. My only nitpick is with the labelling. According to the advice in this PDF (apparently the bible of labelling!), if it can be avoided, you should try to avoid having labels lie on top of other features like coastlines or rivers. Often, it can't be helped, but in your map, for example, you could nudge Ullapool and Fort William a little so that they don't overlap the rivers/lochs nearby. I kinda wonder if you'd be better using a smaller lower case font to make things fit a little better, but that's a personal opinion. Also, a couple of your labels aren't positioned all that well. Culloden is just outside Inverness, not over towards the east coast (unless the books are playing fast and loose with geography?) Also, Ayr is by the coast, not quite so inland. (That's my neck of the woods, so I have to highlight that one!)

[aeshnidae]

Thank you, ChickPea, those comments are really helpful! I'm using the "Outlander" font (not actually called that...I believe it's Charlemagne something-or-other), which is only available in capital letters. I'm not sure if I should stick with that, possibly changing the font size so it's akin to small caps, or revert to the font I used on the other two maps.

I'll move around place names once I have some icons drawn, and see how it best fits with the rivers and such. I took a quick look at an Outlander map for geographical placement but will definitely check that against an actual map of Scotland. I think my locations are off because the reference map was at least partially filming locations. I almost want to re-read the first few books and make notes about locations! Especially for the places that aren't real, but are probably mentioned with reference to real places.

I have the Shetland Islands drawn (on a different layer than the rest of the map outline). They're not relevant to the Outlander story but I'm trying to decide whether I should include them as an inset or try to move around the mainland to allow them into the frame at scale. Any thoughts?

[ChickPea]

I haven't read the Outlander books or watched the show, so I'm not sure what's included and what's not, though I've heard about one or two places where they filmed. I'm interested to see your icons as you develop them. About the font, I suppose it'd be best to wait till you've got everything you want to include in place, then see how it looks. I do like the font you used in the other maps, and using the same one again would link the maps into a series, though that may not be what you're going for.

With the Shetlands, it's really down to what you want the focus to be. If you want a geographical map of the country of Scotland, then yes, the Shetlands should be included. However, if the focus is Outlander - and the islands don't feature at all - then it'd be fine to skip them completely.

[aeshnidae]

Work got in the way but I was finally able to get some updates done last night. I think I will probably switch the font to Enchanted Land, which is what I used on the other two maps, except for maybe one or two spots where I'll use the "official" Outlander font. I do want the 3 maps to be a series, so I think it makes sense to keep the font consistent. I also decided to use mostly the same city icons as I did on the other two, except for places with specific relevance to the books, which have their own icons. I need to work on those a bit - I thought I had the Jacobite flag draped over the Culloden battlefield marker in the right way, but it was have shifted so I want to re-work that, and fiddle with color and stroke to make sure the icons stand out better. Right now placement is still approximate, too.

### Latest WIP ###
Outlander map v3.jpg

Close-up of the various icons:
Scottish stuff v2.jpg

[aeshnidae]

Changed the font, fixed (I hope) all of the placement issues, added the Shetlands, and added some additional names. I feel like it's still a bit blank around the middle. Should I add trees, or at least green smudges? I don't have either of those on the other two maps but I feel like this one needs...something.

### Latest WIP ###
Outlander map v4.jpg

[Gidde]

I like the font much better. Can't advise on the other since I'm no good at this sort of map. But the fonts look great