The Dragon's Backbone and Surrounding Lands - novel version

[KCRileyGyer]

Looking good. Just commenting to watch the progress.

[Gidde]

A-ha! Here's the link to that shading site: http://www.reliefshading.com/

[Caenwyr]

It's gonna be a hellish nightmare to shade but it's a delight to see

Oh gawd yes. I knew that when I started, and man, I always over-detail my maps. But hey, if I ever manage to get it properly shaded, it's gonna be pretty cool-looking!

Really hard to form an opinion until these are shaded. I am eager to see how they turn out. Exploring new horizons is always a good thing.

It is, right? Although continuously taking detours and prolonging projects is not the best way to make money. Luckily this one is just for me, and though I'm a pretty demanding client, I have all the time

For making them look passable vs impassable: There was a site I found years ago about shading relief (by hand via pencil eek) that gave me a great tip.

Next time I'm on my computer I'll try to dig up the link. It was fascinating.

To make em look really tall the shading should be darker at the top vs lighter at the bottom; the more evenly shaded the slope, the lower the whole mountain looks. So if you vary that as you shade, you should get the effect of tall spots vs lower spots.

A-ha! Here's the link to that shading site: http://www.reliefshading.com/

Yes, I know that website! And man has it given me inspiration. I used it a lot when creating the terrain for my Ostwyc map back in the day, but this is yet an entirely different style I'm exploring, so I'll definitely be consulting it again! Thanks for the link; I lost it!

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Alright, another update with yet more mountains! I must say I rather like the perpendicular ridges in the W section of the map: they look quite realistic. I almost feel tempted to go back to my main ridge and redraw it... but I'm not THAT crazy. I think...

Aran_and_Ilan_detail_reboot_03.jpg

You'll notice I'm progressively pushing the map title further and further into that top left corner, and that's not without reason. This region of my world is so important for the story that none of it should be covered up by something as silly as a title box. I've thought about zooming out a bit and incorporating less interesting regions just to have a spot for the title... Maybe I'll end up doing that anyway. Here's a test with some labels to show how precarious the situation already is, and it won't be getting better once I really start stuffing it:

Aran_and_Ilan_detail_reboot_03_labelled.jpg

[Gidde]

The new ridges do look cool, but the old ones do too, don't arrest your forward progress to go back. Doing that is my downfall and why I only map in pen these days lol.

You could always extend the canvas above the border and put the title there, to give you a little more room in the corner.

[bkh1914]

Gidde beat me to it - title at top above the box.

You could also try putting the title at the bottom below the box.

[Caenwyr]

Hey all! Thanks for the helpful suggestions! I did think about moving the title to above the box, but then I remembered I was trying to have this map fit together with the one showing the entire subcontinent (which you can find here).

So what I did instead was to resize the box to 110% of its original size so there was more room for the map inside it, and in such a way that I will only have to resize the entire beast afterwards (tot 10/11ths) to render it exactly as large as the other one. Now I have at least some room for the title, AND I get to show the viewer a little more of the hinterlands on both sides. Linework will be ever so slightly thinner (about 91% of their original 2px width) but who cares about that! Also, I might get rid of the crest orbs on the corners (since the map now only shows three countries, so what am I gonna put in the 4th one?).

Okay. So I continued the "mountaining" over the past few hours. Still far from done yet, but I'm getting closer. Can't wait to start shading this beast!

Aran_and_Ilan_detail_reboot_04.jpg

And with the labels:

Aran_and_Ilan_detail_reboot_04_labelled.jpg

[Texas Jake]

I am eagerly waiting to see what this will look like after shading. Keep up the good work.

[Caenwyr]

I am eagerly waiting to see what this will look like after shading. Keep up the good work.

Thanks! And here's a very early sneak peek for you. Just the lower bit of the central ridge for now, but it should already give you an idea of how it's gonna turn out.

So hey, news flash! I just learned about this weird thing in Photoshop called "brushes". Yes, you can mock me. Pile your ridicule on me, oh mapping nation! Actually, I knew brushes existed but I always found them a bit silly - never quite saw their use. For every map I've done in the past I simply used a round brush, sometimes hard, sometimes soft, and just played with its size. Recently I followed some tutorials I always skipped in the past and woah, my brain exploded! You can actually use these fancy schmancy brush thingies? The elaborate ones? This was an eye opener of epic proportions!

Okay so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit but the fact remains that I never used any other brushes than the standard ones before, and that I'm now slowly exploring the possibilities of the more fancy ones. Like the one I'm now using for shading! Whoohoo!

Aran_and_Ilan_detail_reboot_05.jpg Aran_and_Ilan_detail_reboot_05_labelled.jpg

You'll also notice that I got rid of the corner orbs, so I could shove the title all the way in the corner (I might create a separate box for it, but for now it's out of the way).

Yes. I still got a looooooooooooong way to go

[Texas Jake]

Looks good. You may want to de-emphasize your ridge lines just a bit.

[MistyBeee]

Hmm, this looks amazing so far, Caenwyr ! I had a slight preference for side-view mountains for start, but I definitely changed my mind here !