Freehand map of Westeros, done as a materials test.
I recently finished what currently exists (two books still to be published) of “A Song of Ice and Fire“, by George R. R. Martin – better known to non-readers as “A Game of Thrones”. There were maps available online, and ones available to purchase – but I hadn’t done anything properly “arty” for a while – so I decided to make my own.
I had a huge piece of cream fabric left over from creating a green-screen for filming against (experiments with that viewable on my YouTube channel) and I figured that’d be more interesting and “authentic looking” than just doing it on white paper or canvas. I cut off a piece, then drew the map “freehand” with a pencil. I knew even then that it was a bit squashed vertically, but it was intended to be a “test version” in order to make sure that the acrylic paint I was using would take properly, and see whether or not I’d need to construct a frame to stretch the real version over later on.
Once the outline was complete, I outlined filled it in with slightly thinned white acrylic paint, from top to bottom. Once that was dry, I added the rivers, then started to outline it with black paint. You may be able to tell from the image on the right, that it wasn’t going brilliantly (I got as far as the edge of the second point on the east of The North before I gave up) as I was down to my last couple of brushes, so it had started to become shoddy and tedious. I switched to permanent marker, thinking I could go over it once I had some new brushes – but it was so much easier and so much more accurate, that I decided to keep it like that.
Next, I picked out the more major cities, and marked them in red. My thin brush which was already failing at the outline stage wasn’t going to be nearly accurate enough for the text, so I used cocktail sticks dipped in to the paint to do that. Again, it was tedious work, and the results were not as good as I had hoped, but I kept reminding myself that whole thing was the experimental version, so I wasn’t too disappointed. I did find that this particular technique worked better on the bare fabric than it did on the pre-painted areas – something I hadn’t expected.
The next step was to make sure that the paint would hold. After a bit of Googling, I settled on ironing the life out of it, then putting it through the washing machine, then ironing it again. The articles I was following suggested laying a tea-towel between the painting and the iron, and that the paint needed about 30 seconds under high-heat to set to the fabric, so to do the entire piece took some time. I then washed it under a regular 40 degree cycle, took it out and hung it over the bannister for a couple of hours, then damp-ironed it through a tea-towel again. The paint doesn’t seem to come off on the tea-towel, so I was able to re-use the clean one I had used the first time over.
Having settled on the idea of using permanent marker for the fiddly bits, I marked in the borders and names of the seven kingdoms, along with The Wall and The Gift with a Sharpie – which was reasonably straight-forward. It still feels a bit like cheating, but the effect is so good, that I reckon I can justify it to myself!
The finished experiment is how hanging on the outside of the door to my home-office (otherwise known as Mission Control!) and I have started the “real” version. I used a projector down the length of my upstairs landing in order to get the scaling right this time, and the piece is about as wide as a door, and nearly as tall! During a 4½ hour powercut last night I got the white land areas finished, the rivers added, and the coastline reinforced with a Sharpie. Tonight I hope to get the projector out again, add the capital cities and major landmarks (The Wall and the forests), then perhaps do the first wash to loosen it up a bit before moving on to the other larger cities and castles.
Westeros Version 2: In Progress
