[WIP] Tarkir

[Abu Lafia]

You're doing a great job with this, but I just gotta say one thing. This is about the third map I've seen recently with mountain peaks that lean over. Mountains don't erode that way, and even if they somehow managed to, the weight would break it off very quickly. It just screams NO at me and detracts from the really nice look of all the rest.

Otherwise ... keep up the marvelous work!

Thanks for the feedback Chick! I can totally understand that such unrealistically shaped mountains scream NO to learned geologists, and i'm happy they won't break under their weight, because they are just pixels . I'm not quite sure, but your geological discourse might be a bit displaced in this case. If you were looking at a map for your next climbing-tour in the Himalaya, or from a geology textbook, i'd totally get the point, but this is a map of an imagined place, shaped by magic and dragons and stuff (i wrote it above...), and isn't meant to depict a realistically eroded landscape.
If it would be just about the iteration, i'm sorry, and i also think unrealistic mountain shapes are a high-fantasy cliché, but one that i like, i have to admit... not saying i do not value a properly shaped mountain range, i usually love to look at them!

This is looking really nice, I'm looking forward to seeing how you integrate the forests into the Mountains. I to would love to see the Tutorial of the light and shadow. Keep up the great work.

Thank you snodsy! Yes the integration of the forests will be an interesting task, i'm not too sure about yet . I saw you're working on this on your western states map atm (and doing a great job so far!). I'd gladly hear what you think of it, if i am at this point.

Hey Abu, I just uploaded the stuff I was telling you about, the stuff you inspired me to do.
Here's the link - http://sirinkman.deviantart.com/art/...ages-560045130
The Dragontooth mountains were especially inspired by what you're doing here with Tarkir.

These are wonderful illustrations J.! The icons and the blades you did for the book are really great too!

So, i arranged the mini tutorial you made. I seperated the .psd file into the working steps, layer by layer and tried to partly describe them a bit more. This was the first time making a tutorial, so if i got something totally wrong here (besides the orthography^^) pls tell me.
This was a great help and i hope this may help others too!
Light&ShadesMiniTutorial.jpg