Another quick-turnaround map for me that I did mostly over the holidays. This one was because I sort of had Old West on the brain from reading Brandon Sanderson's latest novel. It's a sketch map of the frontier extreme of Upper Erthal Provinces:

Upper Erthal Province.JPG

Erthal is a rough-and-tumble province, but its northern extremities are...sleepy. People go here not for adventure, to hit it big, or to make a living, but to be in a quiet place away from prying eyes. The local Fort Vantage keeps things generally safe from brigands, but don't expect the comforts of home in Clifftop or Gallaston. There's barely a tavern worth the name in the whole place. Still, there are rumors of treasure stashes that various landmark hoodoos indicate, and you'd be surprised who you could meet in the little canyon-bottom town of Hide Away. Some of those faces might have been on wanted posters, oh, a decade or two ago...

This one is black ink on Bristol, and then colored pencil. I skipped my usual step of painting the watercolor pencil afterward (like this one), to try and give the map a bit of a different feel. I also wanted to play with the border a bit, and used a black brush pen to fill in the edges like a tattered piece of paper. The absolute top-down perspective is new for me, and the cliffs are also something new (but inspired by some of what I've seen around the Guild). I'm quite happy with the lettering I did, too. I think my favorite thing might be that rock in the middle of the river.

I hated the cartouche as soon as I drew it. It just seems totally out of style. So I turned it into a bit of a joke.