I got inspired by Michael Gibbons's generous mapping of my Krevborna setting to create a map myself for my Scarabae setting. The resultant map is above.
I'm actually surprised I was able to make something that looks...halfway decent (for an amateur effort), especially since I haven't drawn anything in months. Of course, it didn't start off looking as relatively nice as it does in the finished product above. This is the initial work I did on it while listening to Comey's testimony:
What we have there is a map drawn with an Ebony Drawing Pencil #55 and inked with a combination of Hybrid Technica and a Faber-Castell PITT artist pen. The blue for the sea and the mottled gray of the buildings was provided by blue and gray PITT artist pens. There's also some Faber-Castell colored pencils for the brown of the islands and the reddish-pinks in the worm train. (If all those brand names sound like gibberish to you, don't worry, they do to me too; I just use what a friend gave me when I started drawing a couple years back.)
I knew I wanted to work on the image further, especially to add color to the buildings. Instead of scanning the drawing like an intelligent person, I took a picture of it with my ancient Lumix and opened the image file in Paint.net. I added a semi-transparent layer and began coloring the buildings with the brush tool, which resulted in this:
The mottled gray base on the buildings from the pen worked with the transparent digital coloring to create a watercolor-ish effect. I used the lasso tool to scoop out the bit I wanted, filled the rest with black, and started using arrows and white text to delineate the city's neighborhoods, boroughs, and wards. I also used a bit more paint brush to make the worm train more purple (it is a purple worm, after all) and blacken up the bridges a bit.
I never did scan the damn thing, but I'm happy enough with the end result.
