professional cartographer wanted!

[Andhor]

Hi all,

we are looking for a cartographer who will draw a detailed fantasy map based on our reference. The map should have a painted semi-realistic style ( close to http://www.msxbox-world.com/assets/f...nline+logo.jpg ).

You will get a rough map of the world (6 continents, dozens of islands). If you have strong skills in world building, you could bring in your own ideas. The first job will be the world ( DINA4 300 dpi) and than every continent in detail (DINA4 300dpi). You will directly work with our author.


We will have the right to use the image for commercial purposes (we will have the unrestricted copyright), the artist will have the right to exhibit the image as part of his portfolio (after we have released the map) but not to exploit it for commercial gain.

Please post your reference map & your contact informations (maybe portfilio) in my thread.


Regards,
Andhor

[Coyotemax]

The last project I did used the same map as an example of the style wanted.

If I wasn't in Mexico right now, and looking at three other projects when i get back home, I'd totally take this up.

[töff]

I'll throw my name in the hat, and I guess I'll use my old Thapelel map as a reference, attached.

I had to look up DINA4, though. (... Dina who?)

[Andhor]

DIN A4 = 21.0 cm x 29.7 cm

we are really looking for a "hand painted semi-realistic style". Töff, your map is really good, but to "glossy" for us. The 3D effect is well done! You could try to improve this map to make it look more hand painted.

[torstan]

Hi there. I'd like to throw my hat in on this one.

Here's a recent map that shows my take on a semi-realistic painterly style. I hope it's close to what you're after:
IroncragCantonsWeb.jpg
This was published in Open Design's Dwarves of the Ironcrags Gazeteer and Halls of the Mountain King and is rights reserved (in contrast to the CC license in my sig).

You can find more maps on my website:

www.fantasticmaps.com

There's a full world map here:
http://www.fantasticmaps.com/Gallery...rldOnACog.html
though that was created for a much larger scale print than the one you are discussing.

You can contact me at jonathan@fantasticmaps.com. I look forward to hearing more about the project.

[Andhor]

the base texture is really nice. The mountains are too "...." ( i dont know how to describe :-)). This one looks really cool: http://www.fantasticmaps.com/Gallery...nal/Island.jpg . But should be colorized.

Anyways, who would like to paint a small test map?

[torstan]

Thanks! As for the colour ... well the request from the client was black and white - so that's why it wasn't coloured. I have a commission at the moment that is in that style and in colour, so you're not alone in thinking that would be cool.

As for the Ironcrags map, if you're not sold on the mountains (they are too much one solid ridge, they need more individual peaks) then there are adaptations that are easy to make. Note that the current map of Morgau and Doresh in this month's Kobold Quarterly is an example of a newer version of this style with, I hope, better mountains. I can't post it here, because it's just released and I don't have permission yet. However if you are interested you can send me an email to the above email address and I'll make sure I can get permission from Wolfgang to send it to you privately.

Before any sort of discussion of tests, can you tell us more about the project? How much are you willing to pay per map? What's the timescale? What will the maps be used for? How detailed is the work that the cartographer will be working from?

On an associated note, I think you'll find that in general artists are not too inclined to do unpaid tests. If you can't tell whether someone will fit from their portfolio then it's reasonable to ask one person to run off a quick sample to make sure, but to ask an entire community to do work for free when you will pick only one or none of the artists then you are asking for a significant investment of time for no guarantee of reward. That's not particularly appealing. If you really want people to test out, then I'd suggest finding a couple of people that you like the style of (perhaps by browsing the finished maps thumbnail pages) and contact them directly (you need 5 posts before you can use private messages for this). Ask them first whether they have anything that fits your description and if you still need a test then make it very clear how close you are to signing them up for the project.

If you do want this to be an open test then please post here what people are testing for. For example there's no point in me investing an afternoon of my time creating a test piece for you to find out that you need it for the middle of November when I have 3 commissions due already. On the other hand this is a very friendly community and you'll certainly get interested parties if you post here with an enthusiastic description of your project that gets people excited. I look forward to hearing more about your project.

[Ramah]

Well I had a few hours this afternoon so I already knocked up a rough test map to see if I could do something in a similar style to the first image you posted.

This is what I came up with so far...

Test_map.jpg

But that new image you posted changes the game somewhat as the first image is nothing like the second one so that's kinda mixed signals right there.
I presume you have trawled through the completed maps and searched for a map in a similar style to what you are looking for?

My own usual style is for a hand-drawn type map but unfortunately nothing like Torstan's that you posted. Here is my latest WIP just in case...

Aronbor16c.jpg

[torstan]

Ramah: that second map he posted was one from my site, not (I think) an example of the style he wanted emulated.

That second map is a stunner by the way. I'll have to check that out.

[Ramah]

Ramah: that second map he posted was one from my site, not (I think) an example of the style he wanted emulated.

Ah, right. No problems then.

And thank you.