Hand-drawn WIP: Braid

[Greg]

Yeah, keep it fluid for now and see where it takes you!
Experimenting is always great fun and totally agree about adding to your skills and repertoire!

[jshoer]

Here's where my experiments are going now:

1. I've reworked the forest a little (especially the treetops, but also to make the contours of the canopy match up with where I placed the trunks).
2. I have basically abandoned the idea of exaggerated perspective on buildings. That was just too much at once, and it didn't match up with the forest. Still working a bit on their style.
3. I tried building up the river in a new way: instead of drawing a wide, meandering river and putting islands in it to create the braid, I took a pencil and interwove three or four meandering river courses, then filled in all the outlines with my pen. I like this much better. I may need to tweak some island shapes, but I think this comes pretty close to what I want. What do you think?
4. I am playing with hatching to give depth to the braid islands. I tried three different styles on this river (bottom: small, quick hatching; center: regularly spaced, wide hatching; top: hatching on the far side of the islands). I think I like the middle one best...thoughts?

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