Aonbarr Cartography

@aonbarrcartography

Vincent Non-Binary | He/They | ADHD | Irish Battlemap Artist for Ember, by Foundry VTT. Married to @Itsjustwitchmaps. I dabble in music, photography, and poetry, and will sometimes talk at length about my favorite films and games.

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Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Jan 3

The Lute Society of America posted an AI-generated image of a lute a week ago - they've since replaced it with real artwork, but I'm still appalled an organization dedicated to preserving the instrument could have posted this. The 2nd image is from Caravaggio's 'The Lute Player' for comparison.

A close-up of an AI-generated image featuring the pegbox of a lute - the peg-box and the pegs themselves are very poorly-defined, nonsensically arranged, and they bleed into each other as well as into the background. The lute features 7 strings that curve and warp, but does not feature the courses typical of a lute, which were pairs of strings that sat comparatively close together and were tuned to octaves.

A close-up of Caravaggio's 'The Lute Player', painted in 1596. The lute's pegbox features 14 pegs, each corresponding to a specific string. The painting even captures the detail of the lute's courses, which were pairs of strings that sat comparatively close together and were tuned to octaves.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 20

*Cries in Irish* This map is taken from a Reddit post linked below - active railways are red, inactive railways are green. Westport to Sligo is an hour drive, but requires a 3:15hr train to Dublin's Heuston Station, a LUAS ride to Connolly Station, and a 3:25hr train to Sligo. 7 hours, at best.

A map of Ireland with active rail lines drawn in red, and inactive rail lines drawn in green. The majority of the lines drawn on the map are green, indicating most of Ireland's railways are inactive, with large parts of the country, as well as several towns and cities, lacking active railways.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Jul 25

The aforementioned binder that @itsjustwitchmaps.bsky.social got me for our first anniversary - I *finally* got around to printing the music it was meant to hold yesterday, and it has been very nice to practice without staring at a screen. It's also a *really* nice binder - she knows me well. 👀

A photograph of a brown leather binder, with the name Vincent in the bottom-right corner - the surname is scribbled out in the photograph.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Jul 9

Heather persuaded me to grab my camera and try to take a photo of it while I had the chance - it really was beautiful!

A photograph of a strikingly orange moon rising from behind a stone wall and into the night sky, over a dark field where two sheep graze and another rests.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Jun 10

Perhaps it is time for a string change...

A close-up photograph of a guitar string, its wound-steel exterior coming undone to reveal the nylon core.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Jan 20

It has arrived! I really love this film - one of the first things I did in the realm of classical/fingerstyle guitar last year was actually figuring out an arrangement of Biome Swete Lilie Flour, from the film's soundtrack! 😄 I took inspiration from a few sources, mind. 👀

A photograph of the special edition copy of The Green Knight, a film by David Lowery. The inner case is yellow and dark brown, imitating a woodcut print, and depicts King Arthur, standing at the round table, from behind, with the Green Knight, a towering and unnatural figure wielding a large axe, entering Arthur's court.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Jan 12

Yesterday, we saw finally got to see Nosferatu, and we picked up Heather's Christmas gift to me. Nosferatu was exactly what I'd hoped for - brooding, gothic, and beautifully shot. The guitar is a gorgeous instrument, and I love it so much it makes me kind of giddy. 👀

A photograph of a spruce-top classical guitar sitting on a stand in a living room.

A photograph of a spruce-top classical guitar sitting on a stand in a living room, this time displaying the darker woods of its sides.

A photograph of a spruce-top classical guitar sitting on a stand in a living room, this time a close-up of the guitar's face, displaying the decorative ring around the sound hole.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Jan 10

12 years ago, a friend sat me down in his sitting room and had me play through Journey for the first time, alone and undisturbed. It's still one of my favourite games, and still one of my favourite soundtracks, so when Austin Wintory released this pressing of it, of course I had to grab it.

A photograph of a record.

The title reads "Traveler, A Journey Symphoney. Austin Wintory".

The artwork depicts a figure wearing blue and white robes standing in front of a beam of white light that divides the clouds, and the scene is framed by a red and white arch. A meandering trail in the snow leads from this arch to the figure by the light.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Jan 8

It's kind of like playing the Sims, except I only ever build houses, and never actually get to move any Sims of my own into them.

White text on a black background reads 'Poorly explain what you do for a job'

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Nov 23

I like this a lot. 😄

A screenshot that reads:

Behold your name:

Ascended Aonbarr, Keeper of Stars and Ruins

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Nov 20

I have hit a fun number. 👀

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Nov 17

Post a Picture you took (no explanation) to bring some zen to the timeline

A desaturated photograph of pine woods and mountains in Connemara, the west of Ireland, on a cloudy day.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Nov 14

I just hit 500 followers. 👀 I realized recently that I've almost exclusively used my Twitter account to repost cool things my friends were doing, and while I do plan to continue that here, I'm already engaging in the 'social' element a lot more than I have in some time. I missed it, honestly.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Nov 12

For anyone curious, this was my Patreon! It's no longer active but you can still subscribe to grab any of the Patron-only content if you'd like, but all the Curse of Strahd stuff is and has always been free, and the Patron-only stuff usually has free versions too. www.patreon.com/posts/map-di...

A top-down battlemap of Castle Ravenloft from Curse of Strahd, adapted by Aonbarr Cartography using Forgotten Adventures art assets. The castle is vast, decrepit, and a dense mist clings to its outer wall.

A top-down battlemap of the Church of the Morning Lord from Curse of Strahd. The church is in a state of disarray, with pews scattered and broken apart. The space is illuminated by dozens of candles, in an effort to banish every shadow from every corner.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Nov 10

Quote with your avi. Let's see the whole thing ✨️

A photograph of Aonbarr, holding a lit candelabra aloft in the dark, dressed in vaguely-Victorian garb, peering into the shadows.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Nov 5

I've always felt like my work (photography, poetry, music - not really the map-making so much) was very much driven by nostalgia. Despite the immediately negative connotations of grief, this description does touch on the bittersweet nature of the feelings that drive most of what I create.

Grief

You create from grief. It is an endless grief that pours out of your eyes and mouth and fingertips over and over again; a grief too vast to be contained. It demands an outlet, and so for you the act of creation is much like weeping. Your work is a memorial to everything you have loved and lost, all you have longed for and been denied. Much like crying, pouring your grief out into your art brings you relief. The feeling of loss pervades your work, but the depth of your grief also speaks to the depth of the love that preceded it. After all, every tragedy is only what it is because someone had loved something enough to grieve it.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 31

It's pretty dang cool to be featured on a list alongside all these cool folk. 👀 My contribution to the Grimoire was the photograph that served as the cover art for Issue 2: Ancient Magic. Still rather proud of that, honestly. 😄

Gothhoblin's Grimoire, Issue 2: Ancient Magic. A TTRPG zine.

The cover art features a sculpture of a woman in a classical style, bathed in an eerie green light from the side, and veiled by shadows that fall across her face.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 25

Looks like we're sharing wallpapers! Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket - I just really love this painting.

James McNeill Whistler's Nocturne in Black & Gold: The Falling Rocket.

The painting depicts a fireworks display over foggy London at night, painted in an impressionistic fashion, composed primarily of splashes of gold against drab blues and greens.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 23

How did I go this long without addressing FromSoftware? I love the Dark Souls games, but Bloodborne felt like it was made for me. The aesthetics and the vibes are absolutely immaculate.

The cover image of Bloodborne:

A lone figure faces away from the viewer, wearing a long leather coat and carrying two peculiar weapons - one is a cross between a sword and a saw, while the other resembles an exaggerated blunderbuss.

The figure stands on the slick cobblestones of a city street draped in thick fog, a nightmarish, gothic skyline rising above.

on the slick cobblestones of a city street that feels like a nightmarish

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 22

I can not tell you how many hours I've spent in RDR2, just exploring its world, living a quiet life in the mountains, or taking absurd amounts of photos with Arthur's camera.

The cover image of Red Dead Redemption 2.

A cowboy points his revolver just off to the side, framed by the sun above an image of seven people riding horseback towards the viewer.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 22

I didn't really know what to expect from Wildermyth, but I immediately fell in love with it. It just exudes so much charm - the entire time I felt like I could feel the love that was poured into the game.

The cover image for Wildermyth.

A trio of heroes battle a monster that resembles a two-headed dragon, one heads eyes glowing blue, and the other's purple.

A rogue armed with a bow hides behind a ruined wall, while a warrior wielding a sword, her other arm wreathed in flame, and a winged mage gripping a staff with two hands stand atop the ruins, facing the beast. A small creature stands beside them, a forest spirit that resembles a knee-high elk made of wood with a halo of vibrant green leaves around its head.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 22

A relative found this in a bargain bin at the airport, and it changed the trajectory of my life. It was my first exposure to anything resmbling dark fantasy (in games, at least), and my first RPG, spurring 10 year old me to write horrifically derivative stories and draw maps of their settings.

The PlayStation 2 cover of Summoner. The artwork features a tattooed hand wreathed in blue energy, wearing a ring on the ring finger. In the upper left corner, the energy takes the form of a minotaur face, blowing a war cry.

Beneath the minotaur, the text reads: "Born of fate, raised by prophecy, chosen as a saviour, destined to destroy..."

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 22

A close friend once sat me down in front of his PS3 in a dimly lit room and then left me alone with Journey for a few hours. Exploring the beautifully desolate world of the game in that context added so much to it, and it was one of my favorite and most moving gaming experiences.

Cover art for Journey on the PS3. A hooded figure in red stands amidst the dunes of a desert, gazing up at a mountain in the distance, beneath a pillar of light.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 21

Post your most popular #art from Twitter 🐤 This map was a lot of fun to work on, but after a year and a half/almost two years, there is so much I would do differently if I tackled a ship map again. Maybe some day. 👀

A gif of a battlemap for a tabletop role-playing game, depicting several levels of a large sailing vessel.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 21

I don't know what possessed me to buy this game I knew nothing about, but Shadow of the Colossus immediately won me over. I got to play for 2 hours that Sunday, and spent the entire week of school just itching to get back to it. One of the first games I played that I recognised as art.

A PlayStation 2 copy of Shadow of the Colossus.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 21

I do enjoy a good bandwagon. 👀

Text reading: Get to know my game taste. For every like, I will post one game I love.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Nov 10

I might have caved and purchased a bass. Maybe. 👀

A photo of a black Squier Jaguar bass guitar.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Oct 15

Coincidentally, this is the exact sound I make every time I draw a letter in Scrabble and see it's the same vowel I already have three of.

A set of letters in scrabble that spells 'AIIIIOP'

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Aug 26

I was talking to some friends yesterday about how great Speak with Animals is in Baldur's Gate 3, and how utterly distressing Speak with Dead was in comparison.

An image of the Traumatized Mr Incredible meme format. He is depicted smiling beside the spell icon for Speak with Animals in the first panel, but for the second, the image is dark, distorted, and grayscale, and he is featured alongside the icon for Speak with Dead.

Aonbarr Cartography@aonbarrcartography· Aug 19

This is my Bard/Rogue's armor class *before* using Defensive Flourish. He may never be touched by mortal means again, but may the gods have mercy on his soul if he ever needs to pass a Strength saving throw. (but realistically, he will get hit again)