I thought it was rather apropos to write this article today for it was exactly two years ago today that I first began work on what is now my Cartography of Aldor.

Many people have asked me over the last two years where I purchased my map, or who I had hired to create it.

The answer is: Believe it or not, I did it myself.

Thankfully, with my background in film production, I have some rudimentary understanding of Photoshop and the wonders it can create. I am by no means a proficient or could ever hope to have the talent that some of these digital artist do when creating their breathtaking matte canvases. But I have enough know-how to pull off what I believe is a good looking piece of cartography.

I have to admit I don’t believe I expected it to turn out as well as it did. I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours working on it. Learning as I go. A lot of that success is do to some fantastic brush sets I discovered by: StarRaven and Bonvanello

The Photoshop file for this project has been a little more extensive than others I’ve worked on. The rune border alone has over 30 individual layers. I had to design the runes from scratch and have them built into a workable type font. For more info on creating runes, see my blog post HERE. All in all, I believe the map is comprised of over 250 separate layers, and this map is no where near as complex as some I’ve seen.

I still have a few additional items that need to be created before it is ready to be formatted and placed within the book.

I will continue adding to it as the series progresses.