# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Pen and Paper / Traditional Methods >  Earthsea archipelago, with a bit of watercolor

## Skaald

Hi everybody. 

This is my latest WIP. It's a map of the Eartsea archipelago from the books of U. LE Guin. I'm trying to make a map looking like a portulan. I'm not very satisfied with the coastlines because 
1) I tried to be as close as possible with the original shape of the isles, and there not very realistic
2) this was my first attempt with watercolor, and it's really a pain in the bottom to manage the good color, the watering, the precision of all this tiny little lines... I have still a long way to go! 
And 3) maybe I mess up because I superposed 2 coastline style : three layers of pen lines following the coast, and the blue water coloring. I think this look a bit messy. 

I'm inspiring (well honestly it's more copying) this map :


This is the early WIP :


And where I am now. 



You're welcome with all your critics!

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## Skaald

If an administrator can change the flag for the thread for WIP? I forgot to do it before posting. I'll delete this message after! Thanks in advance!

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## ChickPea

Fixed for you. It's not essential that you include these flags, so don't worry if you forget to add it (tho I'm happy to add it for you!)  :Smile:

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## Skaald

Hi everybody, long time no see! 

Here I am with my portulan Earthsea. So... I'm a bit disappointed so far. I discovered that I had my compasses very ill-placed, resulting in a lot of parallel lines very close to each other, it's kind of messy. Plus, I don't have the hand yet to draw lines without some ink mess. 

Finally, I dyed it with coffee, with double dose on the dry lands to make them pop, but it's not as contrasted as I hoped.

Any other comments welcome! I'm searching for more stuff to improve here!

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## Feathered fox ink

Hi!

The result is quite good, imo. Portolan charts requires quite a lot of planning on where to place the compasses, so don't be too severe on your work. I would say, for this one or for future work, you should do some sketches beforehand (I prefer to draw the lines with a pencil before inking them, just to be sure, for example) and think about the uses of these lines: they are a tool for navigators, so with your version navigation is made easier in the left part of the maps (because there are more lines to use as references).

As for the dying, I find it good. Maybe improve the shading if you want more contrast, but the existing shading, and dying and red names already works well (at least in the picture, it might look different with real light).

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