Castle of Life

[TheDippedQuill]

Finished product for a commission, a DM's custom world for D&D!

All lettering and linework is done in quill and ink, and the rest watercolors.

Edit*I realized I should also include, the first few maps that the DM himself sent me for the commission. When he originally sent me his sketches, he said he wanted me to consolidate the images into one master map, but I quickly realized that the right continent had the biggest discrepancy, sizing wise. (The overall image depicted it as being long and skinny, while the closeup, with all the details, was squat and fatter) When I asked about which shape he would prefer, he said the overall image where it was longer and thinner, so I had to work with him to adjust the mountains and other details to his liking!

Included are his original sketches!

image1.jpegimage1 (3).jpegimage3 (1).jpegIMG_20190618_021801_378.jpg IMG_20190618_124328_611.jpg 20190617_234532.jpg IMG_20190630_200641_967.jpg

[tainotim]

Lovely pictures, thank you for sharing!

Cheers,
Karl

[TheDippedQuill]

Lovely pictures, thank you for sharing!

Cheers,
Karl

Thanks!! I appreciate the comment!

[MistyBeee]

Aaah, you have all my attention with this one ! Great map. Great pics. A lot of promising elements. You're good with the ornaments
Let me be the first to rep you, and welcome aboard !

[TheDippedQuill]

Aaah, you have all my attention with this one ! Great map. Great pics. A lot of promising elements. You're good with the ornaments
Let me be the first to rep you, and welcome aboard !

Omg, thanks so much!!!

[Kellerica]

Oh, these pictures are just lovely! The map itself is excellent, but it really gets to shine when laid out with the candles and other things. That letter is a wonderful touch too!
I'm sure the GM in question will love it!

[TheDippedQuill]

Oh, these pictures are just lovely! The map itself is excellent, but it really gets to shine when laid out with the candles and other things. That letter is a wonderful touch too!
I'm sure the GM in question will love it!

Thank you so much! He did love it, and so did his players! Yeah, I have fun laying out the maps, haha!

[Falconius]

Welcome to the guild, that map is really something special. I love that nice smooth vibrant blue.

The lettering is really clean and well done. Unfortunately the large letters look kind of spare at that size. And it's impractical to increase the quill size to something that would be appropriate, so in old manuscripts they solved this dilemma by doubling or tripling the lines or some other method of visually fattening the letters up (that's where all the elaborations also start to come in).

I notice you didn't put in rivers. Which works because you have a very nice informationally stark atmosphere here. It also avoids the question of what rivers deserve to be represented. However here are some reasons you may want to include rivers (in future maps): One, they are a major mode of transportation, even now where roads and rails have surpassed them, but in pre-rail eras rivers were quite a bit more significant than roads were. It's why England is festooned with all sorts of interesting canals. And two, rivers can pose a significant geographic barrier. Indeed, roads are often determined by rivers as they tend to lead to points of crossing instead of just straight to their destination.

Anyways, great work on this. Can't wait to see more from you.

[TheDippedQuill]

Welcome to the guild, that map is really something special. I love that nice smooth vibrant blue.

The lettering is really clean and well done. Unfortunately the large letters look kind of spare at that size. And it's impractical to increase the quill size to something that would be appropriate, so in old manuscripts they solved this dilemma by doubling or tripling the lines or some other method of visually fattening the letters up (that's where all the elaborations also start to come in).

I notice you didn't put in rivers. Which works because you have a very nice informationally stark atmosphere here. It also avoids the question of what rivers deserve to be represented. However here are some reasons you may want to include rivers (in future maps): One, they are a major mode of transportation, even now where roads and rails have surpassed them, but in pre-rail eras rivers were quite a bit more significant than roads were. It's why England is festooned with all sorts of interesting canals. And two, rivers can pose a significant geographic barrier. Indeed, roads are often determined by rivers as they tend to lead to points of crossing instead of just straight to their destination.

Anyways, great work on this. Can't wait to see more from you.

Hey Falconius! Yeah, I agree on the lettering for Larmass. I thought it was 'ok' until I inked in the mountains, usually I'm far more careful about it. That's a good tip though, thanks!!

Ha, as for rivers, I was going off the maps from the actual DM, as requested. I actually did ask about rivers, and if he wanted me to include them. He seemed like he was just saying yes to make me happy, so I decided to just go along with his initial sketches since it is, ultimately, his, lol. Honestly I would have loved to include them!!

[arsheesh]

What a fun piece. It feels very authentic; it has the look of a map that might have been drafted during the medieval period. The map also looks as if it has a tale to tell, just the sort of thing every GM/worldbuilder hopes for. Nice work on this, I imagine your client was quite pleased with it.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh