Slightly new style mountains

[Gamerprinter]

I'm working on a commission for Mythic Designs, a new small RPG publisher who works with AvatarArts.com

Anyway, I signed a non-disclosure agreement, so I can't reveal much of anything, but since I'm working on the mountain portion of the map, I thought I could show at least that (but no more than that.)

Although similar to some of the mountains I've created in the past, combining hand-drawn scribbles with beveled shapes created in Xara Xtreme Pro, this is an updated style of mountains I'm experimenting with. I think it looks quite cool actually.

Thoughts?

GP

[ravells]

I really like them. They'd look good on a small regional scale.

[Caleb]

I like them as well. Now, you may or may not have intended it to look this way, but the main reason why I like it is that they seem to signify forested mountains, rather than just rocky mountains.

Either way, I really like them, it would give any map a feeling of reality in a way. As if some actual person within the realm of that fantasy world sat in a scriptorium and drew it themselves.

Great style!

[armoredgear7]

I too am sensing some forest-quality to them, but it's probably just your color palette. Out of curiosity, how big is the original drawing for that block of mountains?

[Gamerprinter]

Nine inches end to end.

GP

[waldronate]

It is so very vital to read all of the preceding posts in a thread before jumping to conclusions!

[Gamerprinter]

ROFL - ah, no, I'm half Japanese, that couldn't be 9 inches by any stretch of the imagination! LOL

GP

[DavidVS]

I like it, but to my eye the mountains seem overly distinct.

I've done lots of hiking, and very few mountains are so stand-alone isolated beside each other. They flow into each other with "saddles" of varying thickness and height.

Your mountains not only never share radial lines but they even have distinct outlines. Perhaps a string of marine volcanoes would develop like this, but not a continental mountain range.

[Omote]

I was looking for some inspiration on a map project or two for an in-close, smaller regional view. I think I have found it. With a drawing like this, you can easily identify particular mountains in a group. Nice work.

~O

[Gamerprinter]

I like it, but to my eye the mountains seem overly distinct.

I've done lots of hiking, and very few mountains are so stand-alone isolated beside each other. They flow into each other with "saddles" of varying thickness and height.

Your mountains not only never share radial lines but they even have distinct outlines. Perhaps a string of marine volcanoes would develop like this, but not a continental mountain range.

This style is more artistic than realistic and meant to be that way. The client had a rough map with isometric views of the mountains, but he also needed to display communities on the slopes of the mountains on the other side. While its certainly true that several "peaks" might actually sit atop one large mountain and radial lines should be shared between them. But this map is meant to depict specific mountains the publisher wanted deliniate more easily and not necessarily geologically correct.

The point is these mountains answer that specific client need and makes it easy to understand to a reader of the map. Does it accurately portray the geology? No, not necessarily, but very often a map is just a symbolic representation of a region, not necessarily a topographically accurate map. Having aerial and satelite views of actual mountain geography is only a recent capability. Most maps in history are not truly accurate either, however the information to be conveyed to the reader is still comprehendable.

And that's really the goal for a map, most of the time - I just need a functional map.

GP