Ganador

[Caenwyr]

Oooh! It's beautiful! I really love it!
How did you achieve the fantastic lighting for all the buildings?

I tweaked and played around with bevel and emboss like a crazy person. Turns out if you draw a red blob and start erasing tiny strips of it, the bevel & emboss filter treats those blobs like a series of independent mini-blobs, each with its own bevel

Looking good

Maybe switch the lighting to the NW? I prefer the one without the linework, even though some of the detail is lost. Maybe a half way version with much reduced opacity or overlay blend mode of the lines layer(s) with them on top of the rest would improve the sharpness a bit?

About switching the light to the NW: I thought of that, since it seems to be kind of a convention, but I decided against it since light seldom comes from the NW - at least not around noon at these latitudes. So I went for realism instead and chose a light direction that fits with about eleven-ish instead
About the linework: I think I'm gonna go for a version without! I can always use the linework-only in my book (if that ever gets published ), but for this forum I'm gonna work without the linework altogether. It's a way of working I intend to evolve in a little more. In the past I noticed it also kinda works in regional maps, although I still need to get substantially better on that front before I can do away with the linework to hide the ugly border effects between light and shadow. On this map, I think it works already!

I like the one without the linework. It's lighter and brighter, and much more 'open' if that makes sense.

I couldn't agree more ChickPea

I think both are nice, but I tend to prefer the one with lines. If it were a regional map I'd say without lines, but I think the buildings look better with... either way you can't go wrong both are equally beautiful in there own way, great job on this.

Thanks, and I agree for the most part! But I really like the kind of satellite map feel this lineworkless version has, so for this particular map I'm gonna drop the linework entirely - at least until I run into something I can't fix without a little inking

I love it ! I'd say without linework it almost looks like an aerial photo. I'd just add a very very low opacity blue on the rim of the lands with a soft round brush or grunge brush softened. That's really beautiful Pieter !

Oh yes, that's a very good suggestion! Will certainly take that with me in my next update of this map. Thanks a bunch, Thomas!


Alright, and here's my current update! Added a few forests (not too fond of how sharp they are set against the background, will probably have to add some darker ground cover to alleviate that), and a series of farmlands.

Ganador_16.jpg

What do you think?