Cen Heddan

[Blaidd Drwg]

Haven't visited in a long time (work has kept me way too busy), but I finally got around to doing some drawing.

This is the village of Cen Heddan, which I intended to use for my prematurely deceased D&D campaign. It's situated on top of a volcanic plug. It has a large tower on its highest point. Terraces used for agriculture have gradually been replaced by houses.

I've tried to "fake" perspective by using an increasingly finer line for the lower parts and by drawing smaller houses. I think I sort of screwed up, though, by giving those smaller houses too dark a tone on the roofs.
On the whole, I'm fairly satisfied, but it looks a bit too messy now it's finished.

Love to hear what you think of it. Praise is good for my ego, but (constructive) criticism is equally welcome

[Ascension]

First the praise, the roofs and hedges and rockiness are done quite well, I certainly can't do that, and I think that I see three levels...I can see two for sure. Thinner lines and smaller houses is good but you might want to erase some detail the lower things get...farther away = less detail so exaggerate that. A good cue for the eye would be to add some shadows, bigger shadows at top smaller shadows lower...that might help fool the eye into enhancing the perspective. Some subtle gray tones in the rocks might also go a long way without having to do hatching and cross-hatching...darker tones and more detail for things close and lighter tones less detail further away. This could be something stellar if you work it a little bit more, quite nice as is, though.

[Daelin]

This looks great. Kinda reminds me of that Tibetan village in Uncharted 2, which I've played recently.

[Vorhees]

Cool town , im gonna snag a copy if ya dont mind for my DnD campaign

[the-golem]

I think the difference betwen the top level and the middle level are decent enough. the lower level looks to have the same lineweight of the middle level. Perhaps you could "fade" them out a bit, to serve as atmospheric haze?

[Gandwarf]

Welcome back Blaidd!
I love the map. It reminds me of the maps of some of the older D&D modules.

[the-golem]

Pretty off-topic: Blaidd Drwg, I noticed your nom de plume is welsh, are you?

Also, your village name appears to be elsh also. Cen has something to-do with the skin or scales of an animal, and the root of Heddan (Hedd) has something to do with Peace. Whats the translation?

[mearrin69]

I think it looks awesome. The depth cues are subtle but work to some extent so it's not completely lost on the viewer. Repped.

I, for one, would love to see this colored.
M

[Blaidd Drwg]

@everyone: thanks for the comments!

@Ascension: there are indeed three levels (in terms of lineweight). I agree on the detail, but I'm afraid there's not much I can do about it now since I've drawn it on paper. I am trying to do some shading on the cliffs (see below). I'm having a hell of a struggle getting them right (which I think I haven't yet). The problem is that I took a picture of the drawing in stead of scanning it (I'm still scanner-less) and the lower left corner of the paper turned out much darker than the rest.

@Vorhees: go right ahead

@The-golem: fading. Yeah I'll try that, thanks! As soon as I've figured out a way to do that. I'm not that Photosoup-savvy, I'm afraid
I'm not Welsh but Dutch, by the way. I did take a few courses in Middle Welsh during my bachelor (translating Pwyll and Branwen mostly) and I pretty much fell in love with the language. Cen Heddan isn't Welsh, though. It's "Irduron", that's what I call my conlang, for Hedda's Head. It does look a bit like Welsh, doesn't it? It's unintentional, but probably no coincidence, since I subconsciously nick a lot of word and syllables for my conlangs from real languages that I like without knowing it.

@Mearrin69: thanks! A bit too subtle perhaps. I've posted this drawing on another forum as well, and most comments say that they "didn't notice the thinner lineweight the first time, but like it now they know it's there." I really want people to notice right away!

So, here's some WIP, after some mucking about in Photoshop.
I think the shading pushes the plateau up more, messy though it is. Once I get it right, I might try it in watercolour on paper. I still feel the different levels could be done better. So I'll try 'fading out' the lower levels as the-golem suggested and perhaps apply darker shadow at the highest cliffs for atmospheric perspective.

Thanks again for the advice!


EDIT: did some fading on the lower areas, corrected some of the bad lighting in the lower left corner and touched up a few minor mistakes that I hope nobody saw

[Dain]

Really cool!
I love the combination of old school and digital color/texture.
I should probably go for the same thing. Mine are usually B/W

I would probably try to use more texture if I were you, they are great improvements