WIP - Castle Highbridge

[whump]

A castle and a town between some rivers with a lovely bridge and a waterfall.

Doing this by hand so first in go the pencil construction lines. I've darkened it to get the pencil to show up. Next will be inking and then we'll see about some colour.

I am not sure what to do with the gap at the bottom. I was going to put a little vignette of the castle itself in there but I can't get it to work. An alternative would be a scale bar or key. Thoughts?

highbridge01.jpg

[snodsy]

Really nice sketch, what if the shield were integrated into the ribbon more, this might open up a little space to breath. Seems a little tight on that side with multiple all the multiple elements. Love the inset sketches, look forward to seeing this one develop, great start.

[- Max -]

Looks nice so far. I'd center the castle map a bit more on the sheet, that should balance the layout better and probably solve the bottom gap.

[J.Edward]

Ooh, nice
I agree with Max on that, unless you had some important part of the map to show in that lower area.

[whump]

Thanks for the comments!

So my fears are confirmed that the composition needs some tweaking. Back to the drawing board we go...

[J.Edward]

Thanks for the comments!

So my fears are confirmed that the composition needs some tweaking. Back to the drawing board we go...

I guess it depends... if you have something that will add some visual weight in that empty space then you could go as-is.

Edit - tried a change of positioning... works a little better, but still needs something in the empty areas... maybe some woods or something.
highbridge01.jpg
I have the psd of that edit so if you wanted that, I can send it or post it, if it's small enough.

[Lingon]

That's an awesome start, Whump. I tend to sketch composition with much less detail, so it's not so painful to try a different arrangement.

[whump]

Thank you everyone for the helpful suggestions!

@J.Edward: in a word -WOW. You nailed it. Buuut... I had already begun inking before putting the first image up here. So it's too late to rearrange anything. Ah well! The lesson is learned for the next time, which is the point after all. I stuck with a rearrangement of the geography for the next step.

@Lingon - yes, quite! Although the image I first posted wasn't the first sketch but just how it looked right before inking. I had thought I'd only change the middle bit and not the border. I am still getting used to playing around with lots of composition elements all at once and not fixing things too early.

Here is what it looked like at the last scan. I expect to hatch the inset pictures a little more. I think I overdid the falls and they are too dark. Some hatching remains to do on the shield and scrolls, then there is the town ans surroundings to do.

highbridge02.jpg

[Greg]

Regardless of composition and everything, your linework is impeccable whump, and your illustrations are lovely! The falls are perhaps a little overdone, but not much and it's only really in the middle where the water hits the rock that it is a little thick.

What do you use to ink out of interest?

I'm looking forwards to seeing some more down on that page and with your re-arranged composition (from the initial sketch you posted anyway), once it's all inked in, it might work quite well still. But as I say, regardless of composition, it looks amazing so far.

[Josiah VE]

Yes, I agree with GLS, either way you're still doing an amazing job with the linework.