Sept/Oct '19 Lite Challenge: Popokaplepepl

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

Hello Friends. Today I'd like to share my map featuring a volcano.

This one will not be winning any contests, but I've noticed I keep putting work into challenge maps just to trash them, because they don't meet my expectations on the technical side. How ridiculous is that? All this map really needs is just about fifty more hours and it'll be worthy of my vision...

Here we have a story of a peaceful, prosperous fantasy island, rich with unusual minerals in its ancient volcanic soil. People are mining, growing unusual herbs and processing magical salts and such. There are beautiful, but scary woods, due to the presence of large, rather aggressive species of boar. The island has a nice dragon cave (the cave is nice, not the dragon), that you can view safely from afar, and admire the scenery. Admiring it from inside is not recommended because the dragon has teeth.

But wait, one day a madman arrives and sets up shop on the side of the largest volcano. "What a perfect place for magical research" he ponders, shortly before reactivating the long-dormant volcano with those warlock magics that decent people want nothing to do with. So now we have smoke, ash, and that burning smell everywhere. You can no longer reach the alchemist's hut, unless you go through the forest, which is dangerous.

There is plenty of adventure on this map, and I hope I'll be able to add all the missing detail before the challenge is over and everybody loses interest in volcanoes.

### Latest WIP ###

Volcano Map4.png

[Kellerica]

Welp, I for for find this one absolutely delightful! The texturework is absolutely gorgeous, and I love the fuzzy look of the painted elements. And making a color scheme this dark is a fool-proof way to get me to fall in love

Hopefully you'll be able to finish this! I really look forward to seeing how you would refine this further, as I already love the way it looks.

[Jaxilon]

I love the painterly style you have going on. Both here and in last month's main challenge thread. I'm not sure if everyone else will agree with me but there is a style I see a lot of on the site and I'm quite happy to see something different. Please keep up the excellent work.

[Bogie]

Welcome to the challenge Kisachik! Great map, I can picture it framed and hanging on a wall.

[DrWho42]

i appreciate the atmosphere on this one!

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

I just noticed the challenge is ending in a few hours, so this might be the final version. I added heavy fog to cover the land, as I imagine it'd be pretty humid with something so hot like lava rivers around.

### Latest WIP ###

Volcano Map6.png

Thank you Jaxilon for your comment on my last map. It's not easy to hand draw every detail of a map, and painting digitally can lead to drawing certain things over and over again, which I don't know if it's good or bad, having so much room for error; it might be slowing down my process. A lot of people use libraries of assets to help them save time, but that might make your work look repetitive. Though I do like the clean line work of vector graphics, that wouldn't fit my artistic vision.

My dream last year was to learn oil painting in 2019, but I failed, because I got in such bad shape financially that I can't afford those paints. I might get a new job in January to help me get out of this situation, so I'm not giving up yet. I'm trying to make my digital illustrations look painterly instead for now. Also I got a nice set of pencils and other cheaper art supplies to keep me busy on paper. Crayola markers might be low quality, but they were 20 cents a piece on the back to school sale, why wouldn't I buy them?

[jshoer]

This is an extremely cool image! It's really atmospheric, and it looks like it would be packed with details if I could keep zooming in. The volcano looks great, too. I wish I could have seen the steps along the way.