I had a similar idea and stumbled upon this thread while looking to see if it existed.
Another (slightly different and likely easier/less realistic) version of this could be how Long Dark handles mapping. With charcoal and paper/map equipped, use the charcoal to uncover x amount of vicinity around your character. Rinse and repeat with the consumption of x amount of coal each time. Utilize approach from other block game like stitching smaller maps together, possibly allowing player to duplicate or update other maps with the primary equipped
Either approach would be fun