Ittara, Commission-maybe.

[damonjynx]

Hi Folks,

A friend of mine, the author of The Blood Path, who i collaborated with as editor/layout/cartographer, is writing a piece for the publisher I've done my last two commissions for and to cut a long story very short he got in touch me and we agreed to proof each others writing prior to sending a draft to the publisher. He sent me his stuff as I've been otherwise occupied and I asked him if he needed a map...Of course he does! I emailed the publisher and he's happy for me to do the work. I'll be negotiating a much better price for this work, or it won't be sold, i can assure you. Anyhow, here is my WIP, a preliminary sketch. Do you folk think this is good enough to send to the publisher with a "style sample" to get the ball rolling and a contract done?

My WIP/sketch is below. The style will be my take on a Renaissance style map, similar to Warlin's Atlantide maps, but I hold no illusions it will be as high a quality as his, but you've got to have something to aim for right?

### Latest WIP ###
Wip_Ittara_Regional.png

[Naima]

Is it for a novel or a tabletop game ? If is the first I see no reason for the hex grid. The shape reminds me a lot of Italy.

[damonjynx]

Is it for a novel or a tabletop game ? If is the first I see no reason for the hex grid. The shape reminds me a lot of Italy.

Hi Naima, it's for an RPG setting book. There's a very good reason the shape reminds you of Italy, the setting book is very much Renaissance Italy, so I found a couple of maps of Italy to use as references and flipped them horizontally to change the protrusion from SSE TO SSW (more or less). The grid may or may not stay, at this point it's just to aid me with scale. If it does stay the opacity will be reduced a lot so it's not as prominent and more of a background.

[bkh1914]

That's a really long river wandering from the lake and down the center of 'Italy'.
I'm surprised it didn't find a shorter route from the lake to the ocean.

[damonjynx]

That's a really long river wandering from the lake and down the center of 'Italy'.
I'm surprised it didn't find a shorter route from the lake to the ocean.

Thanks bkh1914. Good pick up. The river is actually meant to be two rivers. The lake outflow is a tributary of the longer river that flows down to the south. Well, that's how the author describes it at any rate. I mainly just wanted to ensure with this sketch that the topography supported such an anomaly (i.e. the long south bound river). It will be fixed in the production version.

[Naima]

Perhaps you could place two colliding mountain ranges like a fracture rift between two plaques.

[damonjynx]

Perhaps you could place two colliding mountain ranges like a fracture rift between two plaques.

Hi Naima,

I'm afraid I'm fairly ignorant regarding real world tectonics which is something I'm going to have to change, could you explain what " a fracture rift between two plaques." is please.

[Naima]

Something like that https://www.google.it/search?q=rift+...mRBAsQ_AUIESgB .

[damonjynx]

Something like that https://www.google.it/search?q=rift+...mRBAsQ_AUIESgB .

Thanks Naima, something like that is what I thought of after bkh1914's post but didn't know the cause of such a feature. Once I read through the authors complete geography notes, I'll flag things like this to him, that way text and images will be more cohesive and make sense in a real world way.

[damonjynx]

Hi Folks,

I was going to attempt to use hachure lines for the relief in this map but I'm afraid they're a bit beyond me at the moment I think. Anyway, I thought I'd try a different approach (trying to do the mountains in Torstan like style from one of his many excellent tutorials. Any feedbackis greatly appreciated.

### Latest WIP ###

Wip_Ittara_Regional2.png

Edit: I'm really not happy with the above. I think the scale of the mountains is wrong, but when I make them bigger they look horrible (to me at any rate) and TBH, I really like the hachure relief style. Now, that being said, I think I'm going to revert to a more political based map; regions, major towns, cities, trade routes and prominent geographical features. Unfortunately, I don't have Warlin's skill or patience with doing them by hand...

I've been playing around with using a brush to create the look I want. I know someone, (Bob Cooper?) posted a set of hachure brushes that are really cool but as this map will hopefully be for sale, I'd much rather make it 100% my own work (well, at least as much as it can be). Here is a sample of what I'm thinking, I don't mind this...it's not perfect but I think it will do...What do you guys think?

Hachure_Relief Shading.png