Hammerwald - My First World Map

[Jason Juta]

Hi everyone - Although I've been an illustrator for a long time, I'm branching out into maps and diagrams. This is my first world map, made to accommodate any fantasy or historical army that a tabletop wargamer owns or can imagine. I was surprised at how long it took; mapping is quite a complex and interesting job. My PC struggled with all the text, which I perhaps foolishly did in Photoshop. In future I'll try doing all that sort of stuff in Inkscape or some other vector program, which should hopefully help!

Edit: I forgot to mention that I obviously used a lot of real Earth areas and coastlines to generate the landmasses quickly, as I needed the map in my portfolio as soon as possible. One day when I have more time, I'll do a second version and work over all the details to make this less obvious.

Hammerwald_map_jasonjuta.jpg

[Teferi]

I don't think there's even a thing I could properly criticise, the only possible nitpick I could find is, that for the artsy distinguished and in parts comicy style you went for, I don't think you did quite such a varied job in making the map interesting by depicting different biomes and areas of land.

Apart from the hue - and then the obligatory white iteshell in the norf - all the landmasses and mountains and everything looks rather same-ey.

The Typography, style of the banner in the center, the little dude above the windrose as well as the coats of arms though I adore!

[Jason Juta]

Thanks Teferi, yes I agree - It could do with some differentiation in biomes. I think I also struggled between styles (realism, hand-drawn antique, comic/cartoon) because I didn't make a definite decision when starting. Good lessons to learn!

[Dwalus]

This is incredible for a first time. I personally think the blend between antique and cartoon is perfect. Is there any chance you would be willing to draw maps freelance?

[Jason Juta]

Thanks Dwalus - yes, I'm a freelance illustrator, so I'm aiming to include mapping as a service from now on!

[Dwalus]

Thanks Dwalus - yes, I'm a freelance illustrator, so I'm aiming to include mapping as a service from now on!

That's great! If you were drawing the above map for a client, do you know how much you would charge?

[arsheesh]

Very nice Job Jason, love all those sea monsters! The colors are really nice too. Bout the only piece of constructive criticism I can offer is that the border seems a bit plain in comparison with the rest of the map. Great job nonetheless.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Bogie]

Great map Jason!

[J.Edward]

Had to chime in myself - wonderful work on this.
All around fine map. I really like those mountain ranges.
Your light and shadow looks great as does the land brush textures.
And yes, the little illustrations make it even better.
That is quite a nice first post.

Just checked out your site - very nice work.
Love that Alice and Caterpillar piece.
And the Monsters and Magic wizard/demon piece too.
Cheers,
J.

[Obbehobbe]

Really nice, but my first impression was that the mountain ranges look like scars. Upon further inspection, I may think it looks wierd being dark (the pencil strokes) at the top of the mountain. I would like to see a variant with those strokes being very bright instead, like snow on the tops, or atleast brighter than the rest of the mountain range.