FMP - Map

In today's session I created the map illustration of my fictional empire/country and then I put this map illustration into photoshop to turn it into a full-fledged colour map inspired by 17th century map design. The first step in my design philosophy was to find as many reference images for the basis of my map design such as maps of the Ottoman empire and old Arabian maps. Then I had to design the shape of my country so looked at the shape of the Arabian sea where my country is set and decided to go by the logic of continent separation and have it fit within the sort of gap between India and Arabia by shaping it like a large wedge that settle right in the middle. then after I drew the basic shape of my continent, I then went over it in black ink while adding various craters and crevices to add some much needed detail to the edges of the landmass. Finally I created a Emblem in the left corner, which I found to be a common element in a lot of old maps, and then added small illustrations of boats and ships to fill in empty space within the areas.

After I finished the initial drawing of the map, I imported the drawing into photoshop via the scanner and began the colouring and ageing process. I used an old Arabian map as an influence on how the map should look and how I should age the map. I first chose the old paper texture and changed the colours tone to look a little more appropriate. I then adjusted the size of the drawing so it would fit within all the corners of the paper and then shrunk it down so I had room to tear off bits of it when I printed it out for my final piece. The colour scheme was based upon the old Arabian map I found which surprisingly had a lot of colour to it despite its age, although the colours were faded in the centre because of the sheer amount of time it has been around so I replicated that by making it slightly transparent and then adding another layer of pint around the edges. I think overall today has been quite a success because of the way it manages to keep its own style but still feel aged and old like it should do but I wish the font I chose for the text was a little clearer as it is hard to read.