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We moved the old drafting table over from the other house (had been my mother’s after she moved up here, then guest-house, then son’s house for a couple of years) to what is now the spare bedroom in this house. Only it’s not going to be a spare bedroom–it’s going to be a drawing/painting/graphics room. The old drafting table, now well over 60 years old, is pretty beat-up, so I’m using a piece of plexiglass on top of the (rapidly delaminating) original maple veneer top. The tilt mechanism doesn’t work anymore–my mother stabilized it with a pair of extra “legs” that fixed it at one tilt. (Yes, I could maybe get a newer used one, or a new one, but this is the drafting table I remember from early childhood. A “don’t touch” zone that I violated only a few times…most notably the time I used my mother’s big T-square as a hobby-horse. Once. The repercussions were convincing.)
The new master map, begun for Oath of Fealty, is now taped down to the new surface, with an undersheet and a cover sheet. This may be temporary–it’s been rolled and stored in a map tube for safety for the past year, so it’s got “waves.” I taped it down right-side-up, but if 24 hours under a weighted cover doesn’t flatten it, I’ll tape it face-down under pressure as well before starting work.
More of it is done than showed in Oath, but not all that’s drawn has been inked. Inking is the tricky bit, as–both from the way I was taught and for Production–it has to be inked in the blackest, most permanent ink there is, and then scanned (or photographed, which is how I did the Oath map) in pure black/white.
Pargun is still pretty much blank. Everything that happened there in both the original Deed and Oath happened offstage. So I have to figure out where Rostvok (the capital) is, and the settlements (and one actual port) on the river. The usual way I find out about “small terrain” is to be in the head of a POV character who’s there. In this instance…I haven’t been there yet. It’s a nuisance. C.J. Cherryh said to never draw the map first. Kostandan, Dzordanya, and Prealith are still blank, except for the port of Bannerlith. My original master map had more about them on it, but I can’t remember the details. (Or, as I’ve mentioned, find the original master map!)
Anyway, when this new master map is flattened out, I can start work on it, on a better surface (and more convenient) than the kitchen table. Without worrying that a spatter of grease from something on the stove might fly that far, or that someone might trip between refrigerator and sink and mark the map. (I did always cover it with a towel when not actually working on it, but kitchens are busy places.)
And when this is completed (it doesn’t have to be completed for Kings, but may well for the others) it will go down to the place in the city that can scan things even bigger than this and print them out. The Kings maps will include Lyonya, Pargun, Tsaia, and Fintha. For Arcolin’s stuff in Aarenis, you’ll have to refer to the map in Oath (that’s to get a more useful scale, and to avoid having the bottom half of the western map unused by any of the action.)
While waiting for the map to relax and go flat again, I’ll be checking all my pens, ink supply, drawing pencils and erasers, etc. Well, along with running back and forth to the city to take son the things he needs in the apartment and didn’t take, plus the usual (choir practice this evening, for instance; fencing practice tomorrow, etc.)
Dream of future for this room (which has had many ideas for its future put into it)…my own lamp table, a newer drafting table, storage for all the drafting/drawing/painting supplies.
Comment by Robert Conley — May 26, 2010 @ 11:05 am
When I got access to a blueprint copier I started drawing my hand drawn maps in stages. Think of layers in a paint program. When I get one stage done I would get it photocopied a couple of times and use that as the template for the next stage.
Took a little more time because I had to re-ink stuff but the advantage was that I could always revert if I needed to change something and just as important have an earlier stage that is clean in case a spill or something trashes a later stage.
Comment by David Watson — May 26, 2010 @ 11:18 am
CJ Cherryh sez never draw the map first? Oooh, that’s really good advice. Pardon me while I file off the serial numbers for my own use. DRW
Comment by Karen Shull — May 26, 2010 @ 12:03 pm
Way ahead of you on that point, David!
Comment by Gillian — May 26, 2010 @ 3:21 pm
Hmm, that’s really interesting. When you think how tiny the map is inside the book, it had never occurred to me that the original would be as big as it sounds from your description here. Approximately how big is it at this point?
Comment by elizabeth — May 26, 2010 @ 10:03 pm
If I had a large copier I might do that, but the nearest is 50 miles away and expensive…I could photograph the master in various stages, though. Hmmm….
Comment by elizabeth — May 26, 2010 @ 10:07 pm
24 x 30 inches is the size of the paper; the map has a margin…I’m not sure what I scribed that as. That’s what I remember, anyway. I’ll measure again tomorrow.
Comment by Gillian — May 27, 2010 @ 3:24 pm
Thanks. That really is pretty big. I see now why you need a serious table to work on.
Comment by Margaret — May 27, 2010 @ 5:08 pm
Hi Elizabeth,
Just curious if you were going to do this map work anyway and my question about maps in Spoiler Space had nothing to do with you now working on the map…
Comment by elizabeth — May 27, 2010 @ 9:57 pm
Gillian: Actually the paper is 24 x 36 inches; I measured it this morning. The drafting board is 30 x 42. So yeah, a serious table is needed.
Margaret: I was going to do the map work anyway, but had not had time to do it before now. All to the good, since I can use a proper drafting table and not the kitchen table. I’ve known for months what was needed, and Production is holding two pages open at the beginning. So they need the maps real-quick-now. But you can’t hurry hand-drawn maps, and I’m not as fast as my mother was in her prime.
Comment by elizabeth — May 27, 2010 @ 10:29 pm
The master map is now flattening under a carefully balanced load…sheets of foamcore board with books spread on top of them to give more even pressure. I hope. It was necessary to turn the sheets upside down to counter the prevailing curve from those months in the map tube.
We’ll see tomorrow. In the meantime, I taped the edged of the plexiglass that’s on the drafting table–the stuff is sharp in places. If it’s ready to work tomorrow, then I’ll tape the sheets down–the undersheet for more protection, then the sheet with the enlarged copy of the Surrender None map (to bring it to near scale with the master map) and then the master map positioned so the edges meet the SN map that I’ll be tracing. Much of it has been traced in pencil.
I couldn’t do the whole story area including Kolobia at this scale without going to really big and even more expensive paper…but nobody needs the Kolobia expedition map, really. (Take a look at a USGS map of the Kolob Canyon section of Zion Canyon National Park. We hiked through there in 1976 and I thought at the time, “Someday I will use this in a story.” We have the topo maps, and the pictures we took.