Sarifal map for Dragon 376

[Schley]

Hey Guys,
I know it's been a long time since I've posted here but I've been crazy busy lately. No rest for the weary I guess.

Anyways, here's one of my more recent maps done for WotC's 4E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Anyone familiar with the Moonshae Isles will recognize the area mapped and hopefully will get a kick out of the level of detail I included. The Realmslore article this appears in is titled Sarifal and the author, Brian R. James, did and incredible job fleshing out it's tasty tasty flavor. You can check out his website at Loremaster.org.

We also worked jointly on the Cormyr Realmslore article for Dragon a while back and will hopefully be tapped for many more Realmslore articles in the future since we seem to complement each other like peanut butter and chocolate.

Some of the stylistic choices I made for both this and the Cormyr map were influenced by previos Forgotten Realms cartography. For instance, the heavy use of colored inks and the hill illustration style. Beyond that though I generally tried to shoot for a map that incorporated a high level of detail without becoming busy or confusing. This can be seen in the way I illustrated the submerged features like the reefs where the pallet stays close in value and hue to the color used for the shallow water areas.

The entire map (Other than the rough provided by the author) was produced in Photoshop CS3 with a Wacom tablet and took about 4 days to complete. Typically I'll flesh out the finished inks and text before working on any color application. The process is actually very similar to the way comics are digitally inked and colored.

Well, let me know what you think. Crits are, as always, greatly appreciated.

Mike

[Feralspirit]

Very nice work. I looked at the map before I read the text. I was immediately impressed by the style and pallette, and then I began to recognize some of the names. The Moonshae Isles are my favorite region in FR. Congradulations on this and hopefully many more commissions. Job well done.

[guyanonymous]

Stunning. Thank you for the inspiration!

[Aegeri]

This is an absolutely fantastic piece of cartography and really inspiring map. I really really wish you had done the main map for Forgotten Realms based on your work here.

[Dain]

Very impressive!
I especially like the palette you 've used. A master piece.

Can I ask you to reveal the size/ resolution you work on? Sometimes, it's hard to know how to start. The map seems huge. Do you work on 2000x2000 resolution? More than that?
Thanks for your answer

[Redrobes]

Super map as always. Some of the names seem familiar out of the FR context too...

[Steel General]

As a Jr. High School Science Teacher of mine used to say... "Neater Than Sneakers"
(He even had a little ink stamp)

[DungeonMasterGaz]

Another fantastic map, Schley! I saw this in Dragon 376 before you posted it here and immediately recognised your style from your previous Cormyr map (which was the best map of Cormyr I’ve seen).

I agree with Aegeri’s comment on how you should have done the 4E FR map. The watercolouresque style of the map in the 4E FRCG lacks the engaging detail of yours, and I prefer your style because you’ve kept the basic style of the 3.5 FR maps but improved on it beautifully.

There is one thing though, and it sprang out at me when I was studying your map in Dragon – I would have liked to have seen a map key. I’m not sure what the difference is between the square settlements and the circle ones. I imagine towns/villages(?) but don’t know which is which, and are the crescent moon symbols moonwells? I’m guessing here because my knowledge of FR is only limited and I imagine it would be very confusing to anyone reading your map who has no knowledge of FR lore.

Thanks for another great map posted. I love the expanded size and feel privileged to get my hands on an extra large copy (compared to the size published in Dragon) and I hope to see you mapping, and posting, more FR maps in the future.

DMG

[Schley]

There is one thing though, and it sprang out at me when I was studying your map in Dragon – I would have liked to have seen a map key. I’m not sure what the difference is between the square settlements and the circle ones. I imagine towns/villages(?) but don’t know which is which, and are the crescent moon symbols moonwells? I’m guessing here because my knowledge of FR is only limited and I imagine it would be very confusing to anyone reading your map who has no knowledge of FR lore.
DMG

I guess that without the Realmslore text accompanying the map the symbols can be a bit confusing. Sorry about that. The conventions used here are pretty standard but I'll make sure to include a small key somewhere on all upcoming regional maps like this one. Filled squares are ruins, filled white circles are villages, filled black circles are cities, filled black circles surrounded by a white circle are large cities, black stars surrounded by a white circle are capital cities, moons are druid groves or Moonwells, and black X's are points of interest.

Hope this helps,
Mike

[DungeonMasterGaz]

The conventions used here are pretty standard but I'll make sure to include a small key somewhere on all upcoming regional maps like this one. Filled squares are ruins, filled white circles are villages, filled black circles are cities, filled black circles surrounded by a white circle are large cities, black stars surrounded by a white circle are capital cities, moons are druid groves or Moonwells, and black X's are points of interest.

Wow, that’s actually more variety than I first noticed, and I never imagined that almost every settlement on Gwynneth was a ruin! The last I read about the Moonsheas was Darkwalker on Moonshea back in the late eighties, so no wonder I was confused. I think I’d better go read the Sarifal article and find out what happened!

Thanks for your reply.

DMG