The Cathedral Galaxy

[Josiah VE]

This is really awesome. Curious how it would have looked on black paper with a white pen.
Keep it up! That's a lot of dots.

[jshoer]

I'm loving this one a lot. Cool concept, perfectly executed. Can't wait to see it finished !

Wow, such high praise from such an amazing artist! Thank you so much!

Looking great & full of promises!

I hope to deliver!

This is really awesome. Curious how it would have looked on black paper with a white pen.
Keep it up! That's a lot of dots.

Glad you like it! Yeah, I thought about getting some other papers/pens a little, but ultimately I decided that some features (like the giant stars) look better as black-on-white, so I'm going to do some digital compositing. I'm also working my my tools at hand!

Speaking of lots of dots, here's an overall progress image. I've completed my first pass of stippling on both spirals, and I just finished my 2nd pass on the "lower" arm. The "upper" arm I've completed a second pass from the center out to about the "east" compass point. High resolution photo, though I wasn't careful with lighting or focus conditions:
overview-update-201122.JPG

And here's a quick invert, to give a sense of how the stippled stars will look!
overview-invert-update-201122.JPG

---

At the intersection of the Sector Republic, the Imperium of the Triumvirate, and Amseile, lies Harrow's Core. One distinguishing feature of Harrow's Core is the large number of star clusters within the galactic spiral -- like many such features in this galaxy, it remains unknown whether this is a natural formation or a lasting product of gravitic engineering by the ancient precursor civilization.
harrows-core-update.JPG
Only two species are native to Harrow's Core, Harrow's Seeds and Harrow's Sculptors. Other few habitable stars in the region are populated by species that have moved in from outside and made Harrow's Core their adopted home. The politics and culture of the region are dominated by the native peoples of Harrow's Core. Their practices and beliefs are strange enough to outsiders that, despite the relative abundance of arterial warp-channel Anchors in the region, Harrow's Core remains isolationist and enigmatic. Travelers are not harassed or unwelcome; they simply do not often connect with the people they encounter and pass through to other business. That Harrow's Core has remained distinct from both the Imperium and Amseile suggests to some scholars that they have mastered a powerful precursor artifact for defensive purposes. This theory has never been confirmed, no polity has attacked the Core in millennia to provide evidence for such a defense.

[jshoer]

Oh, I almost forgot to ask: how do you think I'm doing on fading out the outer spiral arm, especially where it goes out to form feathery fingers? Does that transition look reasonable?

[Greason Wolfe]

I think you must be a glutton for self-punishment with all of that stippling. Seriously though, I think this is coming along splendidly so far. The inverted version (white on black) looks great. Maybe keep it that way for the whole galaxy version and use the black on white for zoomed views of particular features? Suppose that really depends on how much color you are ultimately going to add.

Have to keep an eye on this one. Got my own itty bitty part of a galaxy map I've been plugging at (indecisively I might add) for a while now. Maybe I'll have something worth posting soon.

[jshoer]

The inverted version (white on black) looks great. Maybe keep it that way for the whole galaxy version and use the black on white for zoomed views of particular features?

Yup, that's exactly my plan! My early sketch test has now gone to the previous page: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...d.php?p=425653

I'll look forward to seeing your galaxy, too.

[jshoer]

I had some sketch lines for a cathedral-like border, but now that I rough it in, I'm starting to think it's too heavy. What do you all think?

CathedralScratch.jpg

Although I call this setting The Cathedral Galaxy, that's because the innermost region is called The Cathedral and I think that sounds poetic. But it's not really what the peoples here would call it.

[jshoer]

I decided to try a few more designs for embellishments. I'm done with the artwork - I think! - and I want to do the pen for any cartouches or whatnot before I take a final photo and start to work on color digitally.

You've seen this style already - I call it "Cathedral," but here are two variants with a title:
CathedralScratch-cath1.jpgCathedralScratch-cath2.jpg

Riffing on the theme of giant space artifacts scattered throughout the galaxy, here are two more ideas. I call this one "Tech:"
CathedralScratch-tech.jpg

...and this one "Derelict:"
CathedralScratch-derelict.jpg

Finally, just to give a hint of what it might look like without any additional artwork to go with the titles, here's floating:
CathedralScratch-floating.jpg

I'm having some trouble deciding exactly which path to take as a starting point. What do you think? I want it to fit in with the rest of the map, but not be overpowering - since my galaxy should really take center stage. Speaking of the galaxy, here's where we're at after loads more stippling and adding some bright stars with diffraction spikes. It definitely got busier along the upper arm, which probably affects which embellishments will do best:
Cathedral-Update-201127.jpg

[jshoer]

All right, folks, I got a little feedback from Twitter (and from my wife... ) and I decided to channel my best Chris Foss and Ralph McQuarrie to put some space hulks in various states of repair around the map. At this point, I'm done with the pen work, I took a solid photograph, and I completed the first pass of digital manipulation to invert the starfield and leave the map features as black-on-white. Here's the photo of my pen-and-paper line work:

CathedralGalaxy_201129_LineArtBase.JPG

And here's the starting point for my coloring and effects work!

CathedralGalaxy_201202_InvertBase.jpg

I'm really happy with where this is going.

[jshoer]

That starting point did not last long. At this stage, it's really starting to take shape. I have a long way to go, but the feel of it is definitely there now!

CathedralGalaxy_201204.jpg

----------

For all the stars, worlds, and wonders of the Galaxy - there are less than a hundred sentient species. It is through starflight and the network of wormholes that they have formed close relationships and intricate political and cultural ties - yet still, the Galaxy remains vast, with great stretches to explore.

No species is a better example than the Waygehn. The Waygehn are one of two species who evolved sentience and starflight near the end of their star’s main sequence. After their home system was demolished, the Waygehn spread throughout the Sector Republic, Traders’ Rim, Imperium of the Triumvirate, and Amseile to form their own political super-entity. Many Waygehn located functional-but-inert relicts and mounted their own systems to the ancient hardware to form great arkships and wandering space stations. Mistrust of the Waygehn is one reason why the Imperium realms dislike the Traders’ Rim.

[jshoer]

Oh, I forgot, I have a question for everyone: do you think I should put light and shadow on the landmark objects as if the light is coming from a consistent direction for all of them, or as if the light is coming from local sources?

(Everything in doing at this point forward is in Photoshop, so I can always go back and change stuff.)