November/December 2011 Lite Challenge Entry: Kelinthria - The Shadow of Bonds
So the medium I'm working with is a sort of aged parchment and calligraphy pens/ink (Yes, the metal tips!) I have to say, I might actually switch the paper for something that doesn't show so much bleed of the ink, but I just think that's the scanners doing! Everything in person always looks so much better ha ha.
But I digress.
This is actually a restart on an old map I never finished, changing the style slightly. Still not 100% sure if the full shade of the mountains are working for me or if I might switch to thatching for the shading style. It might come out cleaner, I'm definitely going to try, if I do switch it, it will definitely retain the shape of the mountains but favor a different shade. Not sure, I will post the different results of what each one looks like later. I'm mainly right now getting the general depictions done(mountain ranges, dessert, forests, continent borders) then i work on the finer details, such as detailing the mountains and so on and so forth.
A little bit more of the map is that it I'm going with a more novel-ish type of rendering, black ink will be used for the land features, blue ink probably to pronounce any water features by outline and shading, and then red ink for names of cities/ports what have you. The map is modeling a story I've been concocting in my head of a few kingdoms from southern and northern hemispheres, separated by a large mountain range, with the only real access between the range gap of the center. Year's of peace has dulled the senses of the kingdoms as a new enemy approaches from the sands (to the right) and the sea (which will be to the southern edge of the map).
More information will be put up as I go, I will aim for at least every other day updates of the map as long as my finals don't get me in the way!
Oh! I love constructive criticism or any advice/tips along the way, so feel free to say whats on your mind! it's really one of the major things that help me grow.
Without further-a-do, the WIP below:
Kelinthria.jpg
Last edited by Nebula; 12-05-2011 at 01:07 AM.
So i have to temporary pull out of the competition, my cat thought it was such an lovely map, (this being with all the ground work laid out and where I was going to take a picture to share.) That it needed a touch of water. Aka a full glass of it. So the map is just a blurred mess of ink that is beyond recognition.
I don't know if I will be able to get something else of good enough quality done before the 15th, so I wish everyone good luck in the competition.
This is very sad to read ...
Well, I learned a life lesson through it. If you have cats, make sure you either drink from bottle or have that glass of water far, far away from anything valuable to you ha ha. (It's not so funny when I lost all that work though :/)
Good thing though is that I decided to restart, using a different medium since the calligraphy ink was bleeding. Bristol and pencil, then going to finish it with inking. Though its now a larger project.
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Good choice of pencils, the derwents are pretty niftyso you're going A3 now? Waiting and looking
The pencils are really good, love them to be honest! Forgive me for the lack of jargon knowledge, but I am assuming A3 is in reference to the size of the bristol I'm using right?If so then yes!
I have more done actually, been enjoying the work so far. Hand drawing every single mountain, is quite serene sometimes!
Here is the over-all progress picture
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And here is a close up on the western mountain range. I'm thinking of simplicity in the mountains would look better on a larger scale with that shading style up using. Trying to keep the ranges a bit realistic in the continental plates. Is it looking good so far?
PC040043.JPG
I'm beginning to think that this is one of the best contests we've ever run at the CG.
Not much progress yet, but I just want to show you guys the northern breaking of the continental plates.
BTW yellow lights suck for taking pictures with my below-par camera haha
### LATEST WIP ###
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And here's the northern mountain range taking shape.
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the only part i'm dreading is when I move onto the tree's. I hate doing tree's. Still don't have a technique I like to do so far.
Yes, the trees be horrible! Mountains meditative, but trees horrible.
You could try the 16th century mapping approach, where individual scattered trees are drawn for forests and not whole masses of them a la Tolkien.
I agree, tree's are just a pain in the tush.
And I was doing some research and looked at a few maps after your suggestion, I actually like the style of it. So i'm going to do some test drawings and pair them with the style of mountains I have.
Just the whole masses of them wouldn't make too much sense for the art style my map is taking. Plus, i cant draw masses of them like that!
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