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JUST finished this. Back when I was in 7th grade I got bit by this fantasy map-making bug. My best friend and I made this huge map of a planet we called Yorst (I think that's right) it was huge, we gave it to our 7th grade English teacher as a retirement gift. Afterwards, I felt kind of bad because I'd done a lot of hard work and wanted a map, so I drew my own, by myself this time. It was a 3' x 5' map, all hand drawn, colored with pencils and ink. A year or so later, I did another one, even bigger, I think it ended up being something like 4' x 6'. Took up most of one of the walls in my room.

Anyway, last week my sister got this great historical miniseries from the BBC called "The Beauty of Maps" and I was hooked. I hadn't drawn a fantasy map in . . .well, a very long long time. So I did a pencil sketch, then ink, then watercolors, then more ink, then labeling.

It actually took much longer just to label the map than it did to draw and paint it, because I wanted it to be a "better" map than the ones I made as a kid, and I wanted the names to reflect countries and regions. So, the names are inspired by everything from Inuit, French, Italian, Greek, Egyptian, Arabic, Irish, Old English, Welsh, Norwegian, Norse, Russian and German, not to mention the small outposts in Elvish and Dwarven lettering.

I'm happy with it, at any rate. *might* think about making a print of this one, too, to see how it might sell in Etsy-land.

Description
JUST finished this. Back when I was in 7th grade I got bit by this fantasy map-making bug. My best friend and I made this huge map of a planet we called Yorst (I think that's right) it was huge, we gave it to our 7th grade English teacher as a retirement gift. Afterwards, I felt kind of bad because I'd done a lot of hard work and wanted a map, so I drew my own, by myself this time. It was a 3' x 5' map, all hand drawn, colored with pencils and ink. A year or so later, I did another one, even bigger, I think it ended up being something like 4' x 6'. Took up most of one of the walls in my room.

Anyway, last week my sister got this great historical miniseries from the BBC called "The Beauty of Maps" and I was hooked. I hadn't drawn a fantasy map in . . .well, a very long long time. So I did a pencil sketch, then ink, then watercolors, then more ink, then labeling.

It actually took much longer just to label the map than it did to draw and paint it, because I wanted it to be a "better" map than the ones I made as a kid, and I wanted the names to reflect countries and regions. So, the names are inspired by everything from Inuit, French, Italian, Greek, Egyptian, Arabic, Irish, Old English, Welsh, Norwegian, Norse, Russian and German, not to mention the small outposts in Elvish and Dwarven lettering.

I'm happy with it, at any rate. *might* think about making a print of this one, too, to see how it might sell in Etsy-land.