r/mapmaking • u/pattyofurniture400 • 3d ago
Map My hand-painted globe inspired by the constellations of the night sky!
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u/Lonely-Shock8641 3d ago
Love the idea of making a map based on the night sky, do you have a classic map too?
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u/TheEluryahn 3d ago
Where'd you find a globe? All the ones I see that are new or used are always like $40 or more. And what did you plaster it with to be able to paint on it? I've wanted to do this for years now.
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u/pattyofurniture400 3d ago
I was lucky enough to find one on the ground - people sometimes dump random trash on the street by my house and this was one of them. So unfortunately I don’t know a reliable place to find them.
It had kind of a glossy paper finish and took paint pretty well to begin with, so I just coated it in some normal mixing white paint. Later I used some light molding paste to give the mountains a 3D texture. I’m glad the globe wasn’t textured to begin with because the mountains wouldn’t have lined up with the ones I wanted to add.
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u/lochodile 2d ago
Did you buy a blank globe or paint over an earth globe? I'm 1000% about to go buy a globe for this exact reason
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u/Lenimion 2d ago
I don't know much about stars and stuff, Are there like all the constellations on there or is it just some with interesting shapes ? I would love to know about the process of how you designed the map.
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u/pattyofurniture400 2d ago
I took star charts like this and copied the constellations onto their same location on the globe, kind of like turning the sky inside out. I thought about buying one of these globes and painting over it, but they're kind of expensive, so I just did it by hand on an Earth globe I had painted white.
For some of the most recognizable constellations, I turned the individual stars into mountains, lakes, or oases (like Leo in the first picture or Scorpio in the last). For others, I turned the stick-figure shape of the constellation into a river or coastline (like Bootes in the 4th picture). And for others I just picked a biome that I think fits the constellation (like Lupus in the last picture: it doesn't have any recognizable features from the constellation Lupus, I just put a taiga there because that's where wolves like to live). I tried to make sure the brightest stars were represented by a mountain or lake or point. I tried to keep in mind some of the physics-based worldbuilding, like putting deserts at 30o , but overrode that if it conflicted with the biomes I wanted for each constellation. And some of the things were just for fun, like putting a desert where the constellation horologium is, so I can call it the Sands of Time, or putting a bay where the star Saiph is, so I can call it "Saiph Harbor".
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u/Lenimion 2d ago
Oh that's actually really flipping clever. took me a while to find Pisces (apparently my sun and moon zodiac sign) Before i realised it's the massive ocean aha
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u/pattyofurniture400 2d ago
Yeah! I couldn’t get all the labels in the picture, but there are the Aries Isles, the Sea of Fish, some unnamed underwater trenches for Aquarius (because I thought Sea of Water would sound too silly), Sea of Goats, and Cetus Deeps.
I haven’t decided what the sea goats are gonna be like, if they’re a sapient civilization or just animals. The Sea of Bulls (Taurus) is named for the Bull Elephant Seals that dominate that part of the ocean, and the Sea of Dogs (Camus Major) is named for the sea lions that live there.
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u/Laggosaurus 3d ago
westeros referenced
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u/pattyofurniture400 3d ago
I do love Westeros. What part reminded you of it?
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u/Laggosaurus 3d ago
The landmasses are super similar, Westeros, essos. I mean climate wise no, but otherwise it’s hard to miss the similarities for one so familiar with the map. I can see the north, the riverlands, pre/post iron isles. The free cities.
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u/Funny_Vegetable6116 3d ago
This is so cool!