WIP : Haerlech

[ChickPea]

Oh, look at the nice cliffs!

But seriously, this is quality work. Is this all done in PS too, or do you use Illustrator (sorry, you might have mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I'm too tired to read through 9 pages of posts.) It's hard for me personally to imagine drawing all those houses in an image editor, whereas I find vector programs so much easier to use for stuff like this. But then, I don't have your art skills!

Your water looks great. I like the rich blue tone and the way it fades into the shallows. I also really like the shading on the green of the surrounding landscape. Will you be adding to the countryside area, with trees/plants/more texture or whatever? I sorta feel it would benefit from that.

[J.Edward]

Thanks ChickPea. It's all done in PS.
Lacking good skills for replicating my buildings I end up drawing everything individually.
It probably is not the most effective use of time but that's how I roll.
I am trying to do some replication with the boats I'm adding.
I have found that the more frequently I draw stuff in PS the faster I get at it so over time it is taking me less and less time to do certain things like that.

I was just thinking about trees and such today. Those would likely get drawn individually which makes me want to hesitate in doing them but I know it does need more out there in the wilds beyond the wall. So, sadly, I probably will. So much time... so much time.

[ChickPea]

Jeez, I don't want to think about how long it took to create all those buildings, though it's nice that you're getting faster. If PS works for you, then that's what counts. It's all down to which software you're more comfortable with. I feel like Inkscape helps me out with my sub-par drawing!

I hope you do fill out the landscape a little. After all, who needs to eat and sleep?

[J.Edward]

Haha, eat and sleep indeed.
I keep meaning to put more time and effort into vector but it is so not natural for me.
Mischief was seeming like a good vector option but the output sucked, or rather I could not get an exported image that looked right.
It was bliss to use though. Basically drawing vector like using a brush in PS. Everything looked so nice and clean.
The exported image did not look like what I was seeing in program. I still need to get support to help me with why it doesn't seem to work for me.

Anyhow.... all boats in and shaded. Way more boats than expected.
Haerlech 03a_002sirinkman.jpg

edit - Looking at this just now, I might need just a hint of wake behind the boats that are to be moving so they don't look like they just sitting still.

[ChickPea]

I'm not 100% sure about the widely offset shadows on a couple of the boats. They sorta look like they're flying above the water, rather than floating on it, but, yeah, some wake will probably fix that (I did not know 'wake' was the word for the waves/churned up water behind a boat. You learn something new every day!)

I hadn't particularly noticed all your linework on the little rocky island on the left before. It looks fantastic!

[tainotim]

Very nice J. Edward. The "port" area is lovely. I'm always amazed with this kind of huge top down city map. Looks like so much work.

The only thing bothering me with this is the grass. It's so bright, and so full of contrasts, that it almost dominates over the more important parts of the map (the city). Wish it was lighter, and more subtle like in the Frosthaven map (However, seeing that Frosthaven is one of my top three favorite contemporary maps, I'm very bias towards it )

Cheers,
Tainotim

[snodsy]

Thanks once again for sharing your process, I think I need to refine my ideas better before starting them in photoshop.

[J.Edward]

ChickPea - the shadow of the boat is falling on the floor of the sea given the direction of the light, which is why the shadow appears further away as the boats get farther out into the water. Technically there would also be a second shadow just on the surface of the water but I thought that would look confusing to the viewer's eyes so I didn't add that.
The wake would possibly help 'ground' the boats to the water surface and help them not look like they're floating.
Yeah, that was a newish style thing - probably shouldn't have added that since I had already done rock in a different style. Live and learn, eh?

tainotim - Thanks. It is a lot of work. I think I've spent more time on this map than any other to date.
The contrast with the grass is shadows to denote change in elevation. The dark being shadow being cast. The area is supposed to be quite hilly.
If it were lighter like Frosthaven, I think it might look too pale next to that saturated sea and dark roof color.
Frosthaven was done to appear as much like watercolor as I could do digitally, as per the clients request. So it is lighter as watercolor.
I am going to try to add some vegetation in there to add more interest beyond the walls, though I'm not looking forward to the added work and time.
Perhaps that may alleviate your feelings regarding the grass.

My pleasure snodsy. It helps me many times to go through the wip process.
I often end up with a different map than I would have otherwise. Most times better.
I have found, using sketch layers, that I can try a bunch of things out in PS and refine them there.
Though I would still say that a well drawn sketch before hand helps far more for me.
The more crystalized the idea is before starting in PS usually the better it comes out in the end.
Frosthaven and Bourmout are good examples of that.

[Ilanthar]

Wow... The waters are really impressive. So lively! Are those ships flying? The shadows make them fly imho.

[J.Edward]

Haha, no Ilanthar. They just don't look like they should.
So I did some wakes behind some boats to help 'ground' them to the water surface.
I also sketched in some speculative trees/woods. Those might change. I may do some fields, may not.
At this stage though I'm not sure that the original layout plan really works anymore with such a colorful piece.
Might have to revise that or just come up with a new plan.
Haerlech 03a_003sirinkman.jpg