Experiment: contour / topographic map

[archipendulum]

Experimenting with contour / altitude lines + hatching to represent mountains / elevation. All ink on paper.

ENdb_LDUUAA93CB.jpg

I think it's getting somewhere, but the isolines also end up looking too similar to coastlines / water depth.

Thoughts and critiques highly welcome

[jshoer]

That's a cool idea. Adding the hatching is a good way to differentiate the contour lines from other types of lines, as you said. You could think about other kinds of shading to enhance the relief, too, like stippling or smooth shading. I would say that as long as you're consistent, you'll pack the information you want into the map.

Of course, color is another way to differentiate water from land - or you could try lightly shading the whole ocean in a flat tone.

[Redrobes]

The coast line IS an iso line that happens to be a 0 height. Perhaps some of your coast might be cliffs where the contours bunch up. If you find that your contours are all evenly spread then thats ok if your terrain has uniform gradients. You can bunch up or spread out contour lines. Contour lines can bunch up on top of each other where you have a cliff or overhang. Perhaps take a little time to look ever so closely at some maps with contour lines and see what reality throws up with them. Even better if its a location that you are personally familiar with.