Hand drawn maps

[landorl]

This is a map that I did for a fan module in Middle Earth focusing on the southern part of the continent. Unfortunately the maps aren't joining together right. I did it on two pieces of paper. I will try to rescan and see if I can get them to join a little better.

This is the kingdom of Harshandatt, and is one of the nations that later make up what is called Far Harad. Most of this land is desert, and very harsh, but along the river valleys the land is fertile, but still quite warm. The mountains in the west are filled with natural springs which keep the main river flowing year round.

I didn't write the module, I just did the map... I did the map with colored pencils, but I can't get my scanner to catch the colors of the pencils quite right. I have done several maps in this style, but I am having a hard time scanning them to get the results that I am after.

[landorl]

This is another one that I did for my own game world. It is three pages joined together, and the join worked much nicer here! I have then brought it into Photoshop and colored it. This one I am fairly happy with, but it is still not perfect. One thing that is happening, is I draw the ridgelines much like the Peter Fenlon maps, but I try to draw them in a light brown, but they don't scan very well, so I have to spend hours going back into Photoshop to draw them in.

I am thinking about doing the whole thing in pencil, then scanning, and trying to separate everything into layers to make them easier to work on, but that is quite a job also!

[helium3]

I really really like the mountains in the second piece. I'll have to figure out how to emulate that style at some point.

[RobA]

I really really like the mountains in the second piece. I'll have to figure out how to emulate that style at some point.

Yeah -
The mountains and cliff coastlines look like the technique called 3D planimetric relief, or plan oblique relief where terrain features are drawn with a perspective aerial view , rather then a directly overhead view but distorted to fit on an overhead view. Like this (from the linked website):



-Rob A>

[helium3]

Where did you get that map on the left from? I actually desperately need that specific map for a book I'm writing.

[ravells]

Reading the shaded relief site that Rob posted the link to, the map is drawn by Erwin Raisz. If you google his name you get a number of sites with his work on.

Ravs

[landorl]

I really really like the mountains in the second piece. I'll have to figure out how to emulate that style at some point.

I drew the basic outline of the mountains, (east/west) then drew the North/South ridgeline connecting them. I then used a softer pencil to give them a little texture. The background coloring was all done in Photoshop.

[MGCJerry]

Wow man...!

Those maps look great! Excellent work.

[ravells]

Both the maps are superb. You just can't beat hand drawn maps. They're so atmospheric..

[helium3]

Reading the shaded relief site that Rob posted the link to, the map is drawn by Erwin Raisz. If you google his name you get a number of sites with his work on.

Ravs

Hahaha. I didn't even see the actual link to the map site.