52 replies to this topic

[Michael Karpovage]

Hey everybody!

Some amazing work on the Map Gallery lately. Just keeps getting better and better and is quite exhilarating to see all the talent out there in our niche field of map illustration and cartography. So, to keep the love alive in sharing our work here is a little doozy I've whipped up between projects. This is something I'm doing on my own through my own firm Karpovage Creative. Been chipping away at it for a couple of months now here and there when not working on contract mapformation.com clients or promoting my new novel Crown of Serpents (clever shameless promotion ) or just needing an escape from all of the political crap in our country. My ultimate goal is to illustrate the entire historic district of Savannah, GA, then turn it into a poster with labels, historical text, factoids, photography, border treatments, etc. to potentially sell retail to the tourism market. It's a BIG project but I'm giving myself until the end of 2010 to finish her up and see what happens.

Typical of my work, this is all drawn in Photoshop with a Wacom pen and tablet and based on many, print, photos, and online reference material. I'll be visiting for the 3rd time again in February to take ground photography and do historical research.

What you see here is the immediate foreground to the large, overall historic district. River Street is THE main tourist attraction in Savannah, GA - which was just ranked as one of the top 10 must visit tourism cities in North America. I put the website together for free using Wix.com in just an afternoon. It's just a placeholder for now. Click on the buildings and a larger blow up in detail will come up. Click again to get back to the main image.

I still have to add a few more tour boats and a tall sailing ship to the river and maybe a few more pleasure craft. Anyway, nuff ramblin' .............let me know what you think so far.

www.karpovagecreative.com/savannah

 

Jan-15-2013 Note: the original sample link for River Street on this post I mistakenly deleted - this link is the new finished map link. ~ Michael
 

[Pete]

Typical Karpovage: completely beyond criticism by the likes of me !

The image is absolutely brilliant ... but - ooh, I just can't help myself, can I? - when you zoom in the texture on the water looks too gritty and a little dark but that's it!

I love the wake on the pleasure boat and soooooo many details!

I've got a quesetion about the interface: when I click to zoom in and the little window pops up, is it just me or does anyone else want to click and drak to pan around in the zoomed in image?

[Nick H]

This is plainly beautiful, it's another map which makes me want to go there! I like the pop-up zoom box too.

You'll know about this I'm sure, but the other day I came across a piece of (free) software, Hugin, which has some useful-looking features for helping to prepare photographs for making architectural drawings, see:

http://hugin.sourcef...veying/en.shtml

On a different tack, you've read 'The Book', I hope .

Regards, N.

[Michael Karpovage]

Thanks guys. I was somewhat challenged in creating the texture of the water and choosing the right color too. I may have to go back and revisit that again as I wasn't entirely sold on it myself. In reality, the color is like a murky dark brownish green full of sediment, but for an illustration that is geared toward the tourism market and also to help visually sell the "product" of a poster illustration I intentionally bumped up the intensity of blue as an eye catcher. A strategic marketing manipulation if you will. Still the street layout is all WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and that is important to meet the expectation of tourists or other visitors.

On the website I created in Wix.com I am still a total novice and I could not find a feature for doing like a Zoomify. I don't think there is even a tool like that yet for users to use. So, I just opted for a simple pop up. This site will be completely redone in the end anyway.

Oh, by the way, on the large white luxury yacht docked in the upper left I even put my name "KARP" on the stern nameplate! Ahhhh.....maybe someday, maybe someday.

[EOSGIS]

Great job Michael,
I like it a lot. It seems to take a lot lot time to make it. I would look forward the final version in 2010 .
goog job
best regards
Fernando

Thanks guys. I was somewhat challenged in creating the texture of the water and choosing the right color too. I may have to go back and revisit that again as I wasn't entirely sold on it myself. In reality, the color is like a murky dark brownish green full of sediment, but for an illustration that is geared toward the tourism market and also to help visually sell the "product" of a poster illustration I intentionally bumped up the intensity of blue as an eye catcher. A strategic marketing manipulation if you will. Still the street layout is all WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and that is important to meet the expectation of tourists or other visitors.

On the website I created in Wix.com I am still a total novice and I could not find a feature for doing like a Zoomify. I don't think there is even a tool like that yet for users to use. So, I just opted for a simple pop up. This site will be completely redone in the end anyway.

Oh, by the way, on the large white luxury yacht docked in the upper left I even put my name "KARP" on the stern nameplate! Ahhhh.....maybe someday, maybe someday.

[DaveB]

I have to agree with the other comments - excellent work on the buildings and boats as usual! I don't care for the water either. The blue seems almost too bright, like it's glowing, and the black grittiness makes it look kind of dirty.

[Matthew Hampton]

Very nice work Michael. This looks like a very worthwhile project to work on. It reminds me of my favorite historic Bird's Eye view which is pretty profound and might be a source of inspiration.

The full image is freely downloadable from the Library of Congress.


 Picture_40.png   605.06K   116 downloads

[Michael Karpovage]

Matthew, that is a good "ole" map of Savannah. I've seen that before. The first of the original settlement. Amazing to see how the original bluff along the river has now transformed into this modern day reproduction.

There's another beautiful birds-eye view map of Savannah out there rendered in 1871 when the city was at its height of commerce in the cotton trade. I have a coffee table book on the history and architecture of Savannah I'm using for reference and this map is in there as a large spread. I wanted to post it on here to show you, but doing an internet search of it has yielded nothing! It was rendered by the great Albert Ruger in 1871 if you wanted to give it a search of your own.

I also did go ahead and change that water color to a bluer tone, got rid of the gritty texture, and did a sponge/motion blur filter to produce wave highlights. It may still be too bright but I'm going to wait until I add black labeling text on top of it to make a judgement on the hue. I might need that brightness for greater contrast for text readability as I anticipate alot of text on that river pointing to the structures on River Street. I also created some more boats too, including a tall ship. Here is a snippet of that latest progress below. I did NOT update that website though - takes too much time and I need to jump on a paying job today!

Fun Tidbit: see if you can find the Freemason symbol on one of the buildings. It is the first/oldest Masonic Lodge in Georgia.

 Savannah_Map_crop.jpg   837.23K   143 downloads

[Michael Karpovage]

Hey everyone,

I made some more additions to the Savannah map illustration that I wanted to share with you. One thing I did do is change the color and texture of the water as a few of you have suggested. I also started getting into some of the graphic design elements of the layout too. Check out the latest progress at:

www.karpovagecreative.com/savannah -- (Note: this is the now finished product...original link on this was deleted and had not been working ~ Michael, January-15-2013)

Sorry, no close ups this time.

[Jean-Louis]

Great stuff as usual Mike.
I will be very interested to closely follow the retail plan and its results.
What are you planning for the rest of the town where the streets are?
Are you planning to fill them with detail as accurate and nicely done as your waterfront, (like what you did for Huntington Beach)?

If so, it may end up diluting the impact of that beautiful waterfront. A suggestion would be to plan a design made up of selective 'islands' of city blocks buildings and leave breathing space (ie empty city blocks) between them. It also makes the map easier to read as a map.

[Michael Karpovage]

What are you planning for the rest of the town where the streets are? Are you planning to fill them with detail as accurate and nicely done as your waterfront? If so, it may end up diluting the impact of that beautiful waterfront. A suggestion would be to plan a design made up of selective 'islands' of city blocks buildings and leave breathing space (ie empty city blocks) between them. It also makes the map easier to read as a map.

J-L,

Yes, I have thought of the rest of the map above River Street. As you can see in the little inset picture (which will actually be the final product) there are 22 squares which Savannah is famous for along with its grid street pattern. I want to try and maintain that visual pattern as part of the uniqueness of the city. That area is mostly residential - (architecturally beautiful houses that are worthy of being illustrated) but if I did fill up the rest of that historic district with the density of buildings and landscaping as I did on the commercialized River Street then obviously I would lose that grid and those important squares and dilute the impact of the "main" tourist area of River Street as you mentioned. I agree that the residential area needs breathing space too and should not be cluttered, plus I have to consider text labeling as well. What I've decided to do is ONLY render important historically significant buildings up in that area, not every single residence or rooftop. For instance, there are several incredible churches in that area, historically famous homes, civic buildings, statues, and little tidbits or factoids of history information (as heard on the trolly tour or on history markers) that need to be recognized - that need to be highlighted for the visitor. I think doing what you suggest - little islands of rendered blocks around those squares may be a great approach leaving empty blocks to be used for text callouts or a small picture dotting here and there. Any way you look at this it is definitely a fun and challenging design as it evolves!

Michael

[Michael Karpovage]

Hey all you map lovers out there!

It's been awhile since I had worked on this prototype but in the last few months I have gotten it to a point where it's almost ready to hit the retail market. I've attached a JPEG of the prototype poster for your constructive criticism. Obviously the quality is lower due to JPEG compression. If you want a clean crisp full size version I can email you a PDF. Contact me at michael@karpovagecreative.com for that.

I value your opinions and have already made changes based on previous feedback, i.e, the water. Let me know how I can improve this version some more.

Originally, if you read the first post in this thread back one year ago, my intentions were to illustrate the entire Savannah Historic District. They still are, but realistically while juggling my regular job with mapformation, llc. these expectations took a back burner in 2010. I have, however, been able to finish up one VERY important section of the map and that is the main attraction in Savannah called River Street. In fact this illustration itself (minus all of the margin factoid text and logo) is now published as a spread in a major tourism hotel guide coming out in a few weeks. So, to follow that public exposure up I am going to roll out this retail marketplace version as a souvenir collector's poster geared toward the tourism market.

One thing that was mentioned is there are no people or cars or things of that nature on the streets. I'm not sure I want to do that - it would seem to "cheese" up the look of it is my first reaction. And this map has more of a nautical feel to it anyway. But from a consumer tourism expectation I wonder if that is a "must" for the retail audience?

Also, I specifically did not include typical map symbols either like Parking Lot icons or Public Restrooms because this is not so much a functional, navigational map but rather a snapshot illustration in time - a panoramic souvenir poster in the classic sense - something worthy of being framed as a memento piece (a keepsake for remembrance of your visit.) AND there will be NO advertisements on this piece. The BIG Savannah map will have all of those items as a functional, folded piece. Not this one.

Looking forward to your feedback.

Thank you!

 RiverStreet_Poster_Draft_5.jpg   958.61K   137 downloads

[razornole]

Well done, and great work. That was fun to explore.

The only thing that caught my eye right away was General Mcintosh Blvd. It is straight type on a slightly curved road, which made it stick out rather then blend in/disappear.

I am also under the assumption that 'dottie' was not capitalized on purpose since it was spelled that way on the map and text block. Just seems odd to not have a proper name capitalized.

Good luck with the sales,
kru

[Jean-Louis]

Beautiful, Mike...as usual. You have no greater fan than I.

One thing for me: There is just something about that container ship

The thing is, I love drawing and seeing ships on a map, it's a very well drawn ship and perfect in every way and it really illustrates the idea of the port nearby

but for some strange reason, It draws all my attention. I spent more time examining it than the whole riverfront. Maybe it's like having an overly sexy girl next to a car. Maybe a smaller cargo ship would have the same effect without stealing the visual attention.

This forum is a good place to determine whether this is just a quirk perception on my part...
JL

PS. That addition of the district on the upper right is fantastic!

[Michael Karpovage]

One thing for me: There is just something about that container ship

That's actually a smaller ship!!! There are massive cargo vessels that pass by River Street on up to the main Port of Savannah. I agree it is a magnet but it's also very important to the experience there. Once you see one of these vessels pass you by not one hundred feet away, it is a truly unforgettable experience. The ship I drew originally had lots more colorful and brighter containers on it. I deliberately toned those down a bit too.

Razor....On General McIntosh Blvd. label on upper left.....yeah, it does stick out doesn't it? One of those things I never noticed. I'm going to actually delete that road label and erase back that extension. Good catch. A little more white space will help there.