Oct / Nov Lite Challenge: The Mengkong River

[Meshon]

I finally have a little free time on my hands and definitely want to try to get something done for this challenge. One of my favourite river stories is Apocalypse Now (and, by extension, Conrad's Heart of Darkness) so I decided to try an homage with yet another different setting, this time a fantasy world. I'm also writing a more detailed background but I think I have all the elements worked out now. I paused here because of perspective. Am I making a top-down map, or a simplified perspective map? One of the problems with adding some perspective is that I will need to draw the river even more out of scale, otherwise I think it will disappear. Also I'm not keen on drawing a whole bunch of tree trunks, since the terrain is pretty much dense jungle. And of course my icons are currently flat.

I've been looking at a bunch of 14th-15th century maps to get ideas and I think I'm going to end up spending a lot more time on the border than on the actual topography! I'm looking forward to doing all the little illustrations; I know I don't have the skill yet to make them exactly as I imagine, so it will be good practice in letting go of perfectionism and being satisfied with "good enough."

Hopefully I'll figure out a way to make better pictures going forward. I just used my phone for this one but I think I can dig up a tripod and a better camera. It will also help the visibility once I dare to start in with a pen…

### LATEST WIP ###
Mengkong_River.jpg

Thoughts on the perspective problems? Stern admonishments? All will be appreciated! And I apologize again for the image quality, I'll find something better for the next update. I just wanted to make sure I got in on this before it's too late!

cheers,
Meshon

[Bogie]

It will be nice to see all your illustrations.

[Abu Lafia]

Great to see you're entering this challenge with a hand drawn map Meshon! Really a Wonderful idea, to work on the Heart of Darkness / Apocalypse Now material. Can't help, but Robby Krieger's Guitar and the sound of helicopters (...or was it just the ceiling fan...?) comes to my mind while looking at the sketch .
What i can see so far looks very good in my view, i like what you've done in the souteast with the delta, were you began to draw the jungle. The rivers' perspective looks totally fine to me. Eager to see what you'll do with the border too. Good to know it's still far from the challenge's end...my friend
Keep up the great work!
Cheers,
AL

[Meshon]

I think I've decided to stick to a top-down view for this map. I'm now making little drawings in my sketchbook as practice...

Thanks very much for the feedbacks!

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

[Meshon]

I don't think I've ever really worked in this medium before. It's kind of amazing for me to watch the image appear as the barely visible pencil marks get covered over in ink. Rather unforgiving ink. The undo command has apparently been disabled.

Here's how it's coming along. It's much easier to see when there's ink on. Plus I used a better camera. No, I don't have a scanner, but I'll probably have to arrange for that before I finish up.

### LASTEST WIP ###
Mengkong River.jpg

cheers,
Meshon

[J.Edward]

I like where this is going Meshon.
Already the sketch says a lot to me.

[Meshon]

More filling in done. Lots of this is a matter of deciding how exactly to go about tracing my pencil lines with ink. However the vignettes are the thing that's challenging me now. I'll try to be content with what I'm capable of making, rather than striving to get the pictures in my head onto paper. It'll be a long while before I get there, certainly not in this map. But I'm learning to be happy with "good enough."

The first thing I did when I started thinking about this map was to write what appears to be some log entries by the leader of the expedition. I'll start including those behind the spoiler tag, in case you want to know more

 

Carnival in Porto Sardis
News of the King’s death has spread quickly and the local lord has wasted no time in claiming the throne. He has declared a carnival and now the streets are crowded with masked revelers in garish costumes. While nobles gather their armies, this city seems happy to hide itself in debauchery.
I met a fascinating character this evening. Bezanti claims to be one of the King’s Rangers, those daring explorers who scour the Eastern Jungles for treasure and wonders to enrich the throne. He’s mad of course. No doddering graybeard would ever be considered for the rangers, yet he claims to have returned from his last foray a week ago, and to have presented the King with a marvelous trinket, a great treasure in itself but only a bauble compared to the riches he says he discovered. He has an interesting map though. However he came by it, it might be worth investigating.
A drunken civil servant let slip that the port will be closed tomorrow. Perhaps it is time to leave the kingdom for awhile. Bezanti told me I could have his map if I bring him along. At least he has sense enough to realize that the kingdom is about to come apart at the seams. I will gather my crew and set sail before the dawn.

Mengkong River.jpg

cheers,
Meshon

[Abu Lafia]

Great job with the ink Meshon! I like the way the jungle canopy partly reaches over the rivers. The illustration and the whole border (including the nice fluff text) look fantastic so far. Is Valenzi the village to the right of the river delta?

[Barek333]

canopy over the rivers here and there really does seem like a great idea. nicely done, cant wait to see the final result

[Meshon]

Added another vignette, plus most of the outlines of the river, I think. Here's the next installment. No need to read it, really, it was just written to give myself some context for the map.

 

The Eastern Coast
At dawn we passed a small fleet headed west, back towards the kingdom. They flew the flags of one of the Commissioned Companies, though they gave us no trouble. I wonder if they know what they are sailing into. The king has been dead a week; I’m not entirely certain that they know of the turmoil that awaits them.
Bezanti has said only a little thus far, and keeps his map close. From what I’ve seen it appears to plot the course of a river that winds from the coast deep into the jungles. I’m not entirely sure I’d need a map to follow a river, but Bezanti claims that even finding the river will be impossible without his map. He speaks of a timeless treasure hidden somewhere on that river. He has also mentioned a Captain Vessazi, who, I gather, is something of a legend among the Rangers. I cannot tell if Bezanti fears or admires the man. Perhaps both.
Arrival at Valenzi
We have made good time and reached Valenzi just fifteen days out of Porto Sardis. From what stories I’ve heard, this is the staging area for most of the Commissioned Companies, and the furthest outpost of the kingdom. As we enter the harbour I can see that the place is a far cry from the spires and avenues of the city we left. Shacks and cramped stone buildings crowd the shore and even extend up the nearby cliffs like a fungus growing on damp rocks. Strangely there are no other ships docked here, though it looks as though there is some sort of vessel under construction at the south end of the town. There is already a crowd gathering at the docks, awaiting our arrival. I wonder what they would make of the news that the king is dead. Perhaps I will not be the one to deliver the news.

Mengkong-River.jpg

Obviously I need a scanner. Or a least a sheet of glass to make the paper flat when I take a picture. Hopefully this thread will contain both examples of map progress alongside my ability to take higher quality pictures of a piece of paper!

cheers,
Meshon