Anyone good at hand-drawn maps? Or know someone who is?

Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

I'm exploring replacing the hexmap in my books with something that looks more like this:



Anyone here up to the task, or know someone who may be interested?

This would be a paid effort, and I'd need a licensing document/contract executed that'd give me the right to use the artwork in my books, websites, wherever. I'm not sure how much this kind of artwork commissions for, so I hope I don't suffer from too much sticker shock ;)
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Tinwhistler said:
Anyone here up to the task, or know someone who may be interested?
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I am 100% serious when I say that I am interested, but that I wish you had asked me many years ago so I could've gotten good enough by now to do them justice. I was all about fake maps/control panels back in grade/middle school, loved drawing 'em.

--Patrick
 
drifter

drifter

That looks like it'd be fun, but truthfully I've never drawn maps before. Here's an album of stuff I've drawn from the forums to give a general idea. I could dummy up a map to explore further if you're interested.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

drifter said:
That looks like it'd be fun, but truthfully I've never drawn maps before. Here's an album of stuff I've drawn from the forums to give a general idea. I could dummy up a map to explore further if you're interested.
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I like your art. I don't know enough about the medium to know how well that skill set would translate into maps. If you wanted to do some quick sketching, that'd be cool. I don't want you to put yourself out to do a ton of work in the speculative stage, though, so don't go nuts ;)
 
drifter

drifter

Tinwhistler said:
I like your art. I don't know enough about the medium to know how well that skill set would translate into maps. If you wanted to do some quick sketching, that'd be cool. I don't want you to put yourself out to do a ton of work in the speculative stage, though, so don't go nuts ;)
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All right, I'll have something by Sunday at the latest. If I don't have something to show by then, it means I don't have the time. Any specific thing you'd like to see or keep it a surprise?
 
fade

fade

Staff member
Well, a central element of Fade is a map. I've drawn it a number of times. Might be able to do something for you.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

fade said:
Well, a central element of Fade is a map. I've drawn it a number of times. Might be able to do something for you.
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Cool. :D

I've begun collecting sample sketches from the 4 or 5 folks that are interested, and will be making a decision on Monday as to which artist I want to go with. So far, all of the commission quotes have run the gamut from $50 to $300.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

So far, I've gotten 3 examples of map-making work from various artists--2 sketches showing style, and one example of a previous map the artist created.

Would you guys be interested in me to putting up the work I've gotten (without names, to keep things unbiased) tomorrow? Or would you just be interested in seeing the final artist I went with?

Or would you not care one way or the other? :)
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Two more artists have told me that they'd get me artwork by today. I haven't gotten it yet, but I'm going to hold out until this evening.
I'll post everything around 9pm or so EST
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Got caught up watching a movie with my wife.

Didn't get any more sketches or examples, I have three to choose from. From about 10 people who said they'd send me stuff. It's about the percentage that I guessed I'd get.

Sketch 1:

Example 2 (prior artwork):

Sketch 3:

I'm going to make my decision tomorrow. One of these is from a fellow forumite. All of them have something going for them, I think.
 
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Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

I ended up with going with Artist #1, who I found on Reddit's /r/artstore sub. They weren't the cheapest, but ultimately, I think that their sketch most closely matched my vision for the map.

I had hoped to have much more to choose from, but 3 out of 10 is pretty close to what I've come to expect when seeking speculative work (art or otherwise). A lot of people get excited about the idea of doing something, but don't get motivated enough to put in the small amount of initial work to seal the deal.

And that's fine--I'd rather less-motivated people weed themselves out early rather than me having to hound someone to complete work that I'm paying them for. :) Don't get me started on the five or so other people who clearly only read the posting title and wrote to me asking for all of the details that I took care to make sure were contained in my post.

I'll let our resident forumite identify themselves and their own work, if they're so inclined.

I thought all of the examples had good things going for them. Everyone I showed the various pieces to agreed.
 
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Bubble181

Bubble181

I liked all three maps as well, and did think they were good for different styles of books. And I also correctly guessed Drifter as the third one, so...;yay. :p
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

Dang, I missed the whole thing. Drawing maps is one of my fun things to do! Also r/imaginarymaps is the place to be!

Old sample;

 
Bubble181

Bubble181

I still think "Ninove" is a funny name. I know it's just a variation on the Nineve/Nineveh theme often used for similar great cities, but it's also the name of a little crappy backwards city a couple of miles from here :p
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Tinwhistler said:
A lot of my place name (though not all) came from me looking at European locales and choosing city names that looked interesting. Elven cities are Welsh, for instance. Human cities are from areas around uk/france/belgium.
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Oh, but "Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe-Waver"; where I used to live, was too hard to slip in there somewhere, huh? :p ;)
 
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