It only took 13 years! Click on the image for a larger view.
I painted this piece on a tabletop at the end of my first wave of "landscapes from space" - it was, and still is, the most elaborate and ambitious project based on the acrylic technique of dies soaking into materials to create landforms.
I tried twice to affix a transparent sticker to the glass tabletop, to show the names of the places in some form. But the effect wasn't good; the type wasn't legible enough; and after all a layer of plastic impedes the light getting to the surface.
Last summer I built a frame device to convey a high-resolution camera two inches at a time across the painting's surface. Then I stitched the images together; there were scores of little photographs to blend and eliminate seams.
But once I had the painting all scanned and tuned up, I spent a lot of time improving it by Photoshop. (One gets rid of all the hairs, little scratches, and bloops that pile up when a table sits around for many years). Setting the type was easy – I had already done it on an older, less satisfying photo of the piece.
SO HERE IT IS. Middle Earth from J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novels, Jeff style. I researched this carefully; I have the Atlas of Middle Earth on my shelf still.
High-quality prints of this map are available via Mapa Jeff Cartography's online store.
