7 replies to this topic

[Schley]

Here are a couple of recent maps created for a series of young-adult novels written by Elizabeth Bunce and published by Scholastic Books. The map of the city of Gerse was created for her novel "Liar's Moon" while the regional map of Llyvraneth was created for the book "Star Crossed".

The images were drawn in Photoshop and based on text and descriptions given by the author and art director. Design elements like the compass rose & border treatments were concepted from items of interest in the story arc.

My intent was to create a look and feel that hearkens back to the interior linework of golden age book illustrators.

Hope you like it.

Attached Files

•  Map_Gerse.jpg   445.01K   187 downloads
•  Map_Llyvraneth.jpg   302.4K   133 downloads

[DaveB]

Cool! (I will confess, I have a soft spot for this sort of map (among others).)
One thing I like is the type/labels are nice, but also quite readable. It seems all too often the labels in literary maps are either crudely handdrawn or use fancy fonts where it's sometimes hard to figure out what some of the letters are.

[Schley]

Cool! (I will confess, I have a soft spot for this sort of map (among others).)
One thing I like is the type/labels are nice, but also quite readable. It seems all too often the labels in literary maps are either crudely handdrawn or use fancy fonts where it's sometimes hard to figure out what some of the letters are.

Thanks! I agree; a lot of contemporary literary maps seem to be drawn with little consideration given to readability or how the images will look in print. Specialty fonts or handwritten script often serve more to confuse the reader than to elucidate the imagery. Chalk it up to bad design I guess.

[Jean-Louis]

Absolutely cool, Schley!
Those maps hit the right note. Spot on on what you and Dave said about type.
Very nice website too btw. I am impressed

[Hans van der Maarel]

Very cool indeed, but I do have a minor comment:

Due to the way you've shown how the Oss flows into the Big Silver River on the city map, I get the impression they flow left to right. But looking at the regional map it's obvious they flow right to left.

[Schley]

Very cool indeed, but I do have a minor comment:

Due to the way you've shown how the Oss flows into the Big Silver River on the city map, I get the impression they flow left to right. But looking at the regional map it's obvious they flow right to left.

Ha Ha! Good eye! The city map of Gerse was created first from notes and a rough outline by the author. All was approved and the final went to press. Later on when I received the art order for the regional map from the editor, I noticed the discrepancy but couldn't go back and change the city map. If the text had allowed it, I would have simply changed the geography in the regional map. But alas, it was already established. The principal river (Big Silver) had to flow east to west and the only way it would have worked was with a super weird oxbow that wouldn't have fit within the landscape. I wish they had assigned the regional map first since then I could have checked the details of the city in context.

A bit of a drawback in creating landscapes from whole cloth is the lack of GIS data or sat photos to check your work against. ;-)

[em-foxburr]

Very nice! A very well set out and clearly readable map. Love this sort of map! I have so many types like this for books/games. Great work!

[prettygirls]

Here are a couple of recent maps created for a series of young-adult novels written by Elizabeth Bunce and published by Scholastic Books. The map of the city of Gerse was created for her novel "Liar's Moon" while the regional map of Llyvraneth was created for the book "Star Crossed".

The images were drawn in Photoshop and based on text and descriptions given by the author and art director. Design elements like the compass rose & border treatments were concepted from items of interest in the story arc.

My intent was to create a look and feel that hearkens back to the interior linework of golden age book illustrators.

Hope you like it.

You draw well... Very creative...I like it!