How I drew the map of middle-earth

Hoi hoi, dear friends, Valtharix is with you!
You all probably know Tolkien's book The Hobbit, and you've probably watched the movie. Personally, I'm a fan of this wonderful Cinematic universe, and I like the Lord of the Rings even more than the Hobbit, and today I decided to draw a map of middle-earth from the Lord of the Rings. Today I will tell you how I did it and what I got in the end. Have fun reading!

Stage 1. Card Selection

  In general, I chose the most realistic map of middle-earth. I had already drawn a map from the Hobbit universe, but it was much simpler, and I had quite a long job ahead of me.

This is the map I decided to draw. 

Stage 2. Drawing 

It took a long time to draw, especially since I had only one pencil at my disposal. The work was laborious, as I had to draw small details, mountains and paths. I also often confused letters with geographical objects, and in the end I gave up on the inscriptions, wrote only the largest and most important ones. There were really a lot of small marks, and I often got lost and forgot to draw an object, but in the end I got something.:

It's not exactly beautiful, but there is some result)

Stage 3. Effects

I wanted my map to be as realistic and sample-like as possible, so I had to depict the aging effect (paper yellowing). I decided to try to do this using tea leaves, although I wasn't sure what would happen because the tea leaves were quite pale in color. It didn't work out very well, but there was another stage ahead)

As I said, the tea leaves were too pale

Stage 4. Finishing touches

Since I couldn't make the paper old enough, I decided to add something else on my own - to burn the paper a little. Of course, some places were burned more than I thought, but it was still cool.:

It turned out more or less, plus I found a darker brew and adjusted the map.

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Well, anyway, as far as I'm concerned, normis, I also hung this map on my wall). Well, I say goodbye to you, until the new post!