A Writer’s Sketchbook - Maps


Racciman's World Original

(1995)

I don't know how any writer can get away without using maps and diagrams. Unless, I suppose, they always set their stories in their own backyard, or their characters never go anywhere? But if they do go somewhere you need to know that they went to the right place, and that it took the right amount of time. Diagrams help me know that things are the right size, and that one day sick bay isn't two levels up from the gym, and the next day it's four levels up. Things like that.


Seasonal Weather Patterns on Racciman

(1996)
I can still remember my sister reading one entire series of science fiction stories, pulling out a pencil and paper to do some calculations, and then announcing that on this world cities migrated between books. It was odd how none of the character's seemed to notice the worlds' morphing geography.


Racciman's World

(2003)

I started out using a pen and pencil, and drawing my maps on graph paper: maps to determine geographical locations, maps to figure out what the weather is like, maps to trace the paths of history. I eventually moved on to digital painting programs to do my maps. I love having the ability to create various layers, which I can show or hide, depending on which information I need to be looking at.


Coral Palace Floorplan

(2003)
CONTINUE TO CHARACTERS

Tortuga Design Sketch

Technical - Pencil 2006

Quote from Flag in Flames
 
'You are not only a slug and a bastard and a dishonorable girl-stealing protoplasmic sludge, you're also an idiot'
 
-- Captain Blood to Silver
 
 
Copyright © Michelle Bottorff

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