WWC: Bamboo and Ink Map of Pandaria

   I took a week off of the WoW Crafting Challenge last week - while I had something ready to post for it, I decided to put it on hold and do a little Blizzcon coverage, since I have to post every day this month, and that's not always easy to do! Keeping a few things back seemed like a good idea. Though I still ended up missing a post because I had little to talk about regarding the second day of Blizzcon.

   This time I decided to try cartography. Of course it's not real cartography, since I didn't go around and lay out the landscape mathematically and geographically like a real cartographer would have done, all I really did was redraw the existing map of Pandaria.

   I made two maps, and they're both made out of bamboo, and drawn by hand with brushes and Indian ink. I used the continent map, zone maps, and the game itself for reference, though I made a few mistakes here and there due to doing some parts quite late at night, and the fact that I can't remove the ink once it's on the wood, though I did draw it in pencil first. For example, because I did these maps so long ago before announcing the project and in preparation for it, I had drawn the Isle of Thunder in place using the old shape of the island. I did my best to fill it in as accurately as I could when it was finally revealed, however, so you can kind of get your bearings, but it is still one of the bigger mistakes.

   It was a conscious decision to not add the Timeless Isle to the map, however. While there is certainly enough room to do so, I decided to leave it out for the simple fact that the island keeps moving, and subsequently disappearing. If it had been added to a map, that map would quite suddenly become incorrect one day, which would be a real problem if the island resurfaced on the coast of the Dread Wastes, for example. So I decided to leave it out.

   I had toyed with the idea of drawing in the main roads with gold ink, but decided that, while the gold wouldn't be too obvious, the metallic shimmer would certainly catch the light and would make the map far too busy. I am a little disappointed with the red ink. I was going to use it for accents but it wasn't red enough, so it ended up just around the decorational corner.

   The maps aren't perfect. They could be tidier, but at the end of the day, as a whole, they're not bad at all. I drew in the big dungeons and the Temples, and both maps are quite similar, but they do have differences. I'm not really sure why I decided to do two, but they are both for sale here, if anyone is interested. This shop only accepts Paypal, but if you'd rather pay by card instead then let me know and I'll list it in another of my Etsy shops that does accept cards. The reason I'm doing it this way is to keep my shops tidier, but just drop me a line and I can adjust things.