Westbridge

[Coreyartus]

So I'm developing another town map. My second attempt at making something for my own campaign, and I'm using Larb's tutorial on Town building as a base but incorporating a lot more hand-drawn elements into it, inspired by his latest work Raedirk Freehold. I am really really impressed by his initial sketching and his layering of hand drawn detail into the development of the map. It reminds me very much of Mike Schley's Red Larch map, which I am also a fan of.

So this time around, I'm putting in layers over the top of the basic outlines that Larb's tutorial has suggested. Instead of trying to make everything happen on a single layer, I'm letting the details happen on their on own layers. This has allowed me to go back in and make things a lot more organic-looking and textural.

My goal is to add a mottled texture to the rooftops, more texture to the ground and roads, and overall create less "similarity" amongst all the buildings in the town. Thanks to Larb's wonderful sharing of his process images for Raedirk Freehold, I'm wrapping my head around how things can happen.

I think, ultimately, only some of this may end up remaining under all the layers. It's a good initial guide, but I am terribly intrigued by line drawing now that I've seen how Larb has used it.

I've also learned that maps simply take time. There's no way around it if you want to make it more expressive, and I have a LOT of work ahead of me. I haven't learned how to do these things quickly, so I'm probably doing things the hard way when there are easier methods I don't know yet. But I'm excited about the potential for this one.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my initial stages thus far. Going to be working on this one for a while... hehe...
Westbridge-Step1.jpg