WIP - Aronbor... or Perdon

[Ramah]

Hey there.

As yet, this is just a placeholder post to let you know that I have finally pulled myself back into the saddle and started work on a new map. Over the past week I've found myself more and more attracted back to this community and to the prospect of making a new map.
After much indecision about what exactly to map, I've finally settled on doing a regional map of Aronbor, a country situated in the nw of southern Vaniya. Or maybe Perdon, to the east. :S

Both countries play an intrinsic part in the story I am writing and so both would benefit from a map. So at the moment, undecided as I am, I've tentatively started work on both. I think soon enough I will naturally gravitate to one which I want to complete first and so this will be the one I post about in this thread.

They/it will be the same style as Vaniya finally ended up as to keep things nice and neat, so nothing new there.

So there it is, hopefully I will have something a little more advanced to post than it currently is in the next few days, time permitting.

It feels nice to be back in the saddle again.

[Gandwarf]

It's going to be great to see more of your work Ramah! Can't wait for the first WIP.
Also a regional map will very much help you develop your story I think or at least give it some extra depth. As you know I recently made a huge regional map myself and I have used it several times already to add some knowledge of the world into my story.

[Ramah]

Ok... so having mulled it over for a few more hours I've decided to go with doing the Aronbor regional first (I think I had already decided this subconsciously when I named the thread with Aronbor first). The shape of the country is not as interesting as that of Perdon but I believe I will find the map more useful at the present time.

Despite having not done a deal on it as yet, I thought I'd post an image so there is a reference to see how it progresses. I guess I'm kinda cheating though as I've already applied most of the effects I used on the Vaniya map (just to see what it looks like, not to actually work with) so it looks like I've done a lot more than I actually have.

Basically, all I've done at present is blown up a section I chopped out of the Vaniya base map and then reworked all the land edge and coastal strokes. I thought at such a zoomed in size I would need to redraw the coast with more detail but it looks ok I think. The rivers will need some work though but I'll wait until I've placed in my temporary mountains and hills so I can extend them and add in lots of little tributaries etc.

Anyway, here it is so far:

Aronbor1.jpg

[Coyotemax]

Very nice. I think the coastline is just fine like that, i can see where the rivers look a little blurred, but you've already mentioned those.

As to carrying over effects from another map, I think it's entirely appropriate when doing multiple maps from the same world

[Ramah]

Hey there,

A new WIP image, this time without the effects that will be added at the end.

Rivers.

I've spent far too long cleaning up the rivers. With hindsight it would have been much easier for me to just erase the rivers and redraw them from scratch, rather than repairing what is already there. Ah well. I've got rid of the pixellation that blighted many of the rivers before and erased an annoying bluriness/glow on all but the large river in the south of the map (which I'll do tomorrow, once my hand has stopped aching from the hours spent doing it today).
I've also added quite a few rivers in the north as well as given all the existing rivers a laticework of tributaries. I'm not sure if I've gone a little overboard on them (for this style of map) but I'll be able to see better once I get the mountains in.

Next up, temporary mountains and hills, from which I'll be able to see where I need more rivers and where I need to amend the ones already in.
Aronbor2.jpg

[Ramah]

Hey there,

A new WIP image and this time the focus is...

Mountains.

I was a little undecided how to update the mountains at this larger scale. The brushes I used originally don't hold up at this size and due to a reformat I performed a few months ago I've lost all those brushes anyway.
Originally the plan was to redraw some new brushes and just follow the basic outline of the mountain ranges and place all new mountains. However, whilst playing around with my new graphics tablet (yay) I found that I really liked the style of roughly tracing over the original mountains on a new layer (and moving and adding mountains where I was dissatisfied with the original) and then shading those mountains by hand in a very rough style to give it quite a hand-drawn feel.

And so the following image is what I have ended up with so far. I decided to post it before finishing them all to show a little before and after transition. All the mountains in the north are finished (although I daresay I will have several more passes over them before completely done with them) whilst the chain to the south I have left as outlines, with just a few shaded in various stages of completeness.

I have yet to add any effects or blurs or whatever to the mountains and the opacity will be lowered a little when I add them in properly to make them a lighter brown, but I left if turned up for now so you can see them clearer.

Aronbor3.jpg

[Rythal]

yah the mountains stand out a bit to much right now, and the rivers seem a bit chaotic, but it looks like its coming along nicely

on a completely unrelated topic, I lol'd at the "software" you use.

[Gandwarf]

The mountains are pretty cool, but I do agree they attract a lot of attention at the moment. Still, when you were creating the Vaniya map I thought you made some bad choices along the way, but it all turned out great. So I am not saying you should change anything at the moment.

[Ramah]

Ok, another update.

Finished the initial pass of shading the mountains and now my attention has turned to...

Hills.

I've actually tried quite a few different techiniques for hills, wanting to try and at least vary the look a little from the Vaniya map, but everything I tried seemed sub par. So in the end I've decided to yet again fall back on the original and basically trace the hills I had, move some, alter the size and shape of some and then shade them all by hand. I'm still shading quite roughly to keep the look somewhat in line with how the mountains are, but the larger size is at least giving me an opportunity to try and hint at some contours between the hills.

As yet I've just done the hills to the north on this image, although I have all the other hills outlined on another layer waiting to be shaded. It's quite slow going so I guess it will be a few days before I update with what I guess will be the trees.

Aronbor4.jpg

Edit: Oh yeah, and as Rythal quite rightly pointed out, the rivers ARE chaotic with far too many tributaries. The reason for this is I did them the first night I had my new graphics tablet and I was seeing if I could do rivers with it and ended up getting a little river happy. :S
I've already dialled back the rivers in the NW somewhat, deleting many of the superfluous ones but I still want to clear them some more. The rivers around the rest of the map are untouched and I will clean/delete them later on in the process when I get down there.

[Ramah]

Ok, time for another update.

The bulk of the work on this one has been taken up with the hills. The shading was very long and slow and boring. But for now I've completed all the original locations. I'm sure I'll add more in a few places as I progress but for now they are done.
The rivers have been sorted out in the main, except I want to excise a few more superfluous tributaries in the north. A small job but means another rebuild of my land and coastal strokes etc. so I'll finish those for next time.

I've also added a subtle colour change to Aronbor. Maybe too subtle for as it is now but I'll alter the surrounding country colours for the next update so it stands out more.

I'm fiddling with the look of the coastal strokes at the moment, mainly because I wanted the rivers to be a uniform brown colour. They won't remain exactly how they are at the moment (I haven't even blurred the edges) although they may be similar but with more rounded lines.

Aronbor5.jpg

Next up will be forests.