Author drawing a map while world-building

[Ilgoth]

I figured that I need to blog, while I make the map. Mainly, as it seems by Facebook friends are getting fed up of my mapping statuses... ^^ So here I am!

I actually sketched part of the map and shared it here before;

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Right now I've been working on the full map, while my main concentration has been the world of my novel. If it matters, I'm writing dark fantasy. Last week I started to move my sketch to digital version, I use Adobe Photoshop to create the map and resolution is 5333 x 4000. I've done some digital art, and I think it will show on this too. I first create a greyscale version of the map, where I use lot of time to shadow elements to my taste. This way I can simply overlay some colors in, and play with different themes!

So here are some pictures what I got right now:

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Simple linework, which I did on top of the hand-drawn sketch. Fastly done for later guideline.

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The refined coastlines. I used lot of time with this, and I think this is version 4. I tried to keep the same style as in the hand-drawn version, because I really fell in love with that kind of touch. Obviously coastal effects I will add later on.

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Here I walk through the mountain layers, and how I construct them;
- linework layer
- two shadow layers, light and dark
- ground detail layer
- texture layer

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And all mountains done.

Nature is more powerful and 'aggressive' in my world. I have done this with sea and weather, so from there I kind of got into doing same with mountains. I originally drew them like this, then fixed for realism and then got back for world-building purposes. It felt right after giving it some time. Hopefully this don't put you off.

Tahl-Ulrun is the main continent, where the story builds up on. Actually, whole human society locates in the eastern part of it as western part is abandoned. Some generations ago, huge wave of sicknesses broke out and in the end this made people to travel and run towards the east, where dwarves lived. It didn't take long until war broke out where actually humans won, and dwarves got killed to extinct. Lot of details and reasons how this was possible, main thing being insane leadership of dwarves and the numbers. But yeah, in short the history why the world is in the shape it is.

Next thing I work on forests, in similiar way to the mountains. Will see what kind of texture I come up with.

[J.Edward]

I like you pen drawing.
It looks like you're off to a good start.
You are using a mouse? not a digital tablet?
I'm always impressed when I see what people have done with a mouse.
It's so much harder that way.

[Ilgoth]

I like you pen drawing.
It looks like you're off to a good start.
You are using a mouse? not a digital tablet?
I'm always impressed when I see what people have done with a mouse.
It's so much harder that way.

Heyy J.Ed

Thank you! Yeah I am using a mouse, will see if that changes later on. I do own Wacom Intuos Pen, but its drivers started to collide with recent motherboard drivers so I had to put it aside for now. :/ Mouse indeed is bit harder, but I'm getting used to it bit by bit. If I didn't have proper hard mousepad, it would be insanity!

[Ilgoth]

Been working on the forests, here what I got so far.

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Would it be too much detail, if I make shading similiar to mountains on top of that pattern?

[J.Edward]

I don't think it would be too much.
Try some smaller section of forest and see what you think.
It's looking good by the way

[Ilgoth]

Yeah I'm rock solid shading forests is a good thing. Huge difference.

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Lot of work but worth it!

[Josiah VE]

It's looking good, but now it looks as if the forests are top down and the mountains are isometric, I don't know how you could fix it at this point...

[Jaxilon]

Well you could draw trunks beneath all lower horizontal areas of the forests to change the perspective but with the forest canopy drawn like it is it might be hard to overcome.

I believe I did a similar thing to myself when I started trying out maps.

[Ilgoth]

Thanks for comments Josiah VE and Jaxilon.

I noticed this myself, when I was sketching the forests first time. Still decided to go with the style I had in mind, as I found it interesting and lovely. In the end, these maps are for myself and if I ever happen to be so lucky that I get published in some form, I will have someone else doing the official map for the book. Making these maps while working on the story is just a new form of old drawing hobby.

[Ilgoth]

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Here's the current version the map is at.

Right in the middle you see the forests done in the shading, the model we talked in couple of previous posts. Now every other forest element is simply colored in one shade of gray, the very same base color that is used in the shading. I'm now baffled should I just stick to one-colored ones, as that style is pleasant too. The "height lines" give it form enough as well.