Durra - The Land of Shivers

[Tear]

Here is one of my recent projects.

Some background:
Durra is a large island on the northern hemisphere of the world of Vaimon. It is the northenmost spot of solid land in this world and its basic climate is roughly comparable to taiga-ish regions in our world. It is subject to harsh weather conditions throughout the year, though. Depending on the season there are a lot of storms, heavy rain, fog, blizzards, and hail.
The southern regions are quite fertile during the summer, though the area tends to suffer from heavy thunderstorms during this period frequently. Most of the years food imports are required to support the whole island.
Despite these rather unhabitable conditions, Durra has a high population density. The main reason for this is the vast amount of natural resources that are mined there and the trade that comes with it.
The northern part of Durra is dominated by a dwarf-like race that even dares to keep on mining during the winter months. This race was in fact the first one to settle here. Durra is actually a word in their language which roughly translates to "Glitterstone".
The southern part is dominated by humans these days.

I created this map using Photoshop, as always, using slight variations of techniques and styles I developed during my time here in the Guild. I used this map as an opportunity to speed up my workflow, which was quite successful. The entire map without labels took no more than 5 or 6 hours of a Sunday, which is a great improvement for me, personally.

But I digress.

[Tom_Cardin]

Beautiful. I really love how sinuous and fine your rivers are, they taper so well. Anything you want to share about your methods would rock.

[Tear]

I used stroked paths with the fade option activated in the brush settings for this map.
If you'd like to see any particular settings just ask away.

[mearrin69]

That's beautiful. Have some rep for doing it in just 6 hours. Would take me days.
M

[craggles]

Absolutely beautiful!

I'm very interested in the trees and the mountains.

[Ruedy]

I like the style of your maps, nice work!

[Gandwarf]

Very nice work indeed, Tear. Especially considering it only took you 5 to 6 hours.

[Tear]

Thanks all. Once you have set up a template for yourself in a particular style it really helps a lot in terms of speed.

I'm very interested in the trees and the mountains.

Sure.

The mountains are based on a tutorial by Pasis. Basically, it's three layers of beveled texture stacked on top of each other. I use layer masks on all three layers to paint the mountains in, because I'm faster that way. Then I used a layer at the very top to increase the overall contrast to support the harsh background story of the map.

The forests are pretty straightforward. It's a texture layer set to multiply with a slight bevel and drop shadow. Again, I use a layer mask painted with small brushes set to scatter depending on pen pressure. This makes variations in the forest edges pretty easy and quick.

[craggles]

Excellent! Thanks very much!!!

[Steel General]

Beautiful work Tear!

Your methods are very similar to what I use in my maps.