Hi Folks,

Following on from the commission I did, I've kind of become obsessed with old-school hex-maps, particularly those by Thorfin Tait. His work on Calidar and Mystara is awesome and inspiring.

So anyhow, I contacted the line manager for the CF line at The Design Mechanism and told him I'd like to have a crack at re-doing his map of the setting, which he created in Hexographer by Inkwell studios. To cut a short story very long, I sent him my take on a hex map in a similar style to Thorf's and consequently, Hexograpger's. While he liked it it wasn't "different" enough to warrant re-drawing it.

So, I attempted a digitally hand-drawn top down kind of version. I'm not particulalry happy with but he seems to like it.

The below images are created by me but Copyright Rodney Leary & The Design Mechanism. All rights reserved.

Here is the version I sent him before labelling etc and here is another version with some subtle changes to the line work (reducing opacity and setting blend mode to overlay) and labels.

What are your opinions on which looks better. Also, any pointers for this style as it's waay out of my comfort zone.

Cheers,

Valencia3.png

Valencia 4.png