Cartography is not easy; I can say that with absolute conviction.  Every part of it - from conception to execution - is tedious and time-consuming.  That said, it is an invaluable process in that it forces me to think about my characters' journeys, and it cements the world in reality.

With the first book, I worked off of a very rough regional map.  It was always a small story with only a few real locations, so that was all I needed.  But this story is so much bigger, and it's intended to open up the world.  The map had to reflect that.

So, this is my first real fantasy map:


This is the map after a texture pass and the addition of the compass rose:





Part of me wanted to go with a traditional fantasy map with icons, names for everything, and borders, but with a full-world map like this, that's not really an option.  So I chose to make it a little more realistic - kind of like a satellite view of the world, with only the cities named.

I started with a sketch (basically just the continents and major landmarks) on nine 14x17 pages (creating a 3x3, 9 tile grid).  Then, I took pictures (the pages were too big to scan), and loaded those pictures into Photoshop CS5.  From there, I refined the shapes of the continents, did the coloring, applied the textures, and then, finally, labeled it.  All in all, it took about 12-15 hours of work, but I think it was well worth it.  The result is a useful bit of art that I can use as a reference and promotional material.  That, and I think it's just pretty cool.  Hopefully you all do too.

In the next update, I'll probably have another couple of maps ready.  I still need to do a political map, and I'll probably use a variation of this one to establish the names of natural formations (mountains, rivers, oceans), scale, and major landmarks.  I also have plans to create maps of Nou Tyran, Byn Takar, and Linston sometime in the near future. 

So keep checking back, and I'll keep posting.