The Southern Realms of Arlon (My first offering to the Guild)

[Vulpes]

Kia ora! The Southern Realms of Ärlon is my first offering to the Guild and my second ever map. I started with a random list of place names and let inspiration grow from there, worldbuilding as I went. I was having second thoughts about half way through all those darn pine trees but I really like how it all came together. All hand-drawn, started with a rough pencil plan before inking with some fineliners; A4; December 2020.

I've learnt a lot from this one and any and all thoughts and comments are much appreciated

~Vulpes

The Southern Realms of Arlon.jpg

[Adfor]

For your second map, it is very clean, and kudos on powering through that forest style, quite the tedious effort that one is.

I have but one critique, and it may be a personal preference, so bear with me. The uniform spacing of the elements throughout your piece makes my chaotic brain yearn for some variance. You definitely achieved that placement variety in certain areas, but there seems to be a habit of always placing the next element just as far away as the other element, which to me, makes the piece look unnatural over all.

Just a thought, hope that helps. Do you plan to try color?

IR

[wminish]

This is a really nice map, especially for an early attempt. I really like the way you have used the ground texture to show the terrain type of different areas of the map and having done forests in a similar style for some of my own maps I can definitely appreciate how time-consuming that must have been. That compass rose is also very nice. Great work.

[Vulpes]

For your second map, it is very clean, and kudos on powering through that forest style, quite the tedious effort that one is.

I have but one critique, and it may be a personal preference, so bear with me. The uniform spacing of the elements throughout your piece makes my chaotic brain yearn for some variance. You definitely achieved that placement variety in certain areas, but there seems to be a habit of always placing the next element just as far away as the other element, which to me, makes the piece look unnatural over all.

Just a thought, hope that helps. Do you plan to try color?

IR

Thanks! And I know what you mean about the spacing. I was going for a more iconographic/tolkien-esque style but I intend to mess with the basic framework more in future maps to mix things up a bit.

I hadn't thought about colour but I might give it a go if I get a chance to print this off soon and have a play around.

[Vulpes]

This is a really nice map, especially for an early attempt. I really like the way you have used the ground texture to show the terrain type of different areas of the map and having done forests in a similar style for some of my own maps I can definitely appreciate how time-consuming that must have been. That compass rose is also very nice. Great work.

Thank you! I particularly enjoyed the compass rose myself. I couldn't find much in the way of guidance for drawing them so I just took a stab at it and was happily surprised.

[wminish]

Thank you! I particularly enjoyed the compass rose myself. I couldn't find much in the way of guidance for drawing them so I just took a stab at it and was happily surprised.

Compass roses are a lot of fun to draw. They can add interest to the map as well as filling in some empty space, I have a whole lot of good compass rose images pinned on Pinterest for inspiration when I need it.

[mapmage]

Excellent work!

[The Elderly Cartographer]

Love it. A combination of simplicity and detail. Great compass too.

[Vulpes]

Excellent work!

Thank you!

Love it. A combination of simplicity and detail. Great compass too.

Thanks I wanted to avoid crowding so I tried to keep things simple at their base, but combine it all together in a way that hopefully looks deceptively more detailed than a bunch of triangles and wiggly lines ought to haha.