Mapping Goat island - With real goats!

[Jalyha]

Okay, so, having checked to make sure it was *technically* allowed... I'm going to incorporate a version of Goat Island into my fantasy world.

Niagra falls gets a lot of press, but that whole area is just lovely, and I think it would be more lovely without all the people

So...

My personal irritant is that people tend to think of water as being *seperate* from land... and it is... but not entirely.

So I'm starting with this guideline/tracery which shows it's *all* land.

This is a *really* rough outline of the CLIFFS that would make up the surrounding river and falls, if all the water was somehow cut off:

niagra 1 land.jpg

And this shows those areas of the cliffs that are covered by some amount of water:

niagra 2 water.jpg

So... that's where I'm starting from.

I'll probably fail badly at this, but I figured I should at least try a real wip

[Jalyha]

Well I figured out how to do the depths... sort of... for my outline

I've made the lower-lands have the darkest water, middle height lands with a mid tone, and the highest lands with pretty clear water.

The falls and rapids are much lighter, cause, really, it's not the falls, it's the spray at the bottom of those falls.

Now I just have to do the same for the land, and figure out how I'm going to draw and paint it

niagra 3 water depth.jpg

Any commentary at any stage will be appreciated... I thrive on compliments, learn from critiques and really shape up from criticism!

[Scoopz]

You know this is pretty cool, but I gotta say: when you said you were mapping goat island I thought you mean New Zealand!

... you know... cause of the 7:1 goat to person ratio... ok whatever.

[Domino44]

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. It looks really cool so far!

[Jalyha]

You know this is pretty cool, but I gotta say: when you said you were mapping goat island I thought you mean New Zealand!

... you know... cause of the 7:1 goat to person ratio... ok whatever.

LOL!!

It's actually named Goat Island... even though I don't think there's goats now... it looks pretty urbanized. But I intend to bring a little NZ to NY!

(Maybe even more than the goats... that's some beautiful country!)

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. It looks really cool so far!

Thanks! Now if only I have enough steam to finish it!!

[Jalyha]

Okay, so... I've completely abandoned the *real* goat island at this point.

I have the water heights approximated, and that's all I needed. With no more inspiration, I tried to estimate some land heights, and then I tried to approximate the water flow in a couple of the falls.

So now I don't know where to go from here. I can show more land, and more detail, if I do a top down view, but then I lose most of the beauty of the waterfall. so... not sure. I'm looking for a good compromise.

Here's what I've drawn so far!

niagra 4 land height.jpg

Did some more work, but then decided it was too messy to do all at once, so I'm going to do it in sections.

I started, obviously, with Goat Island itself.

He'res *just* the seperation of land and water ... I know it needs a lot of work but I'll get there .. oh and I did it as a screenshot of my layers (well, as many as would fit) so people can see my process and if they feel like it ... tell me what I could do better/easier..

Goat Island post.jpg

AND now I should go for the night!

[Nathan]

Ok, here is for all the people who wished to see a real goat in this thread :

funny_goat__by_toxoner-d4ca0hh.jpg

[Ilanthar]

By Jalyha
I'll probably fail badly at this, but I figured I should at least try a real wip

Why? There's no reason to that. Personnally, I've never been disappointed by one of my work in the end with a WIP. There's so many precious helpers and supporters here!

It seems to me that you have a good start for an ambitious project (a lot of data taken into account here )

You know this is pretty cool, but I gotta say: when you said you were mapping goat island I thought you mean New Zealand!

I think it's rather the sheep ratio in New Zealand.

[Xeonicus]

This looks really interesting. It definitely makes me reconsider how I think about integrating water and land in a map.

[Jalyha]

Ok, here is for all the people who wished to see a real goat in this thread :

funny_goat__by_toxoner-d4ca0hh.jpg

LOL I'll adopt your goat. The rest... They are coming! First I have to ... y'know... grow stuff for them to eat

Why? There's no reason to that. Personnally, I've never been disappointed by one of my work in the end with a WIP. There's so many precious helpers and supporters here!

It seems to me that you have a good start for an ambitious project (a lot of data taken into account here )

My attention wanders, like a 5 year old, without redirection. In most things when I hit a wall, I tend to move away... and mapping is harder than painting

But I'm trying to stick to it!

This looks really interesting. It definitely makes me reconsider how I think about integrating water and land in a map.

Yeaap. Water is weird... except where there's like... plate hole stuff things under the ocean, the whole ocean bottom is cliffs too. Everything above the molten core is layers of dirt. (Or gasses / spaces between the dirt).

Water, as important as it is to us, is kind of an afterthought. It just... fills in the lower bits


Fun little story of why this irks me: Me and a friend went weight diving in the river one year with some rented scuba gear. If you had enough air (and could see through the muck) (and weren't afraid of wild things) you could walk all the way across the whole river.

We got the idea cause we were talking about people "fording rivers" cause we'd been playing oregon trail in one class or another, and how, in some rivers, with a low enough water level, people really could walk right across.

Of course, I'm sure there's holes and chasms and dangerous drop offs, but yeah... all dirt. Not that anyone cares LOL (I talk a lot!)


ANYway, here's my latest WIP for those who want to see progress (And Nathan's goat has become my mascot. )

Goat Island post.jpg