It's been an interesting divergence lately to work on maps for fantastical locations. After my last posting I had two key ideas to make the map more authentic.
The first was to create a more thematic-looking set of icons for the various locations. Instead of Ordinance Survey like set of icons I had the idea of shorthand visuals: One hut for hamlets, two for villages, three for towns, a mage's tower for an academy, castles, castle-towns and do on to better fit the more old-time mythical style of the rest of the map. The sits sit much more neatly than the original black marks, and I have a few brushes for future projects of a similar style.
The second idea was partially inspired by how some fantasy maps embellish a representation of an important site. A recent example being the stand-out representation of Erebor on a map from Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. On this map, that focus was given to the capitals: The port and temple of Kirstan, the royal citadel of KharKanas, the fortress-gates of Drongo and the marbled spires of Istri. While KharKanas is much larger compared to the others, I figure it justified as the Conglomerate Empire has a whole continent to itself.
The client was certainly happy with the end product and it has got me thinking about the environmental or architectural side of my creative ideas.
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