Fantasy Mountains

[Chris Lewis]

You're welcome and thank you for the link as well. This is excellent! Thank you!

[Mouse]

If you listen to Nate's commentary on the video link you gave me, he refers to Fantastic Maps as his source. Fantastic Maps is run by Johnathon Roberts, who made the video I gave you the link to. If you go directly to Fantastic Maps you will find a veritable treasure trove of videos about all different aspect of fantasy mapping, including top down mountains, trees, and... well, practically everything, and its really not so difficult to translate what Mr Roberts does with PS into a pencil on paper drawing

Well, that's the theory anyway. I have yet to prove it by actually hand drawing a sensible ISO perspective set of mountains myself

[Chris Lewis]

Wow, what a treasure trove of information! I Subscribed and will delve into as soon as I can. I'll do my best at translating it all to pencil/pen and paper. Thank you again, my friend!

[Mouse]

You're welcome, Chris

[Chris Lewis]

### Latest WIP ###
trees.jpg
Looking for suggestions on how to make my forests look more realistic. I've got 3 different variations here including one of pines and one of deciduous. I'm leaning towards the one in the middle but it still looks like a puff of clouds. I experimented with more shading and detail (it's basically the same type of forest as the one at the far right) but still not liking it. I would also like to make the pine forests work since they're an integral part of colder climates. Your suggestions, critiques are all welcome. Thank you!

[Mouse]

Are you drawing this in pencil, or ink. The reason I ask is that the lines seem very dark for pencil.

I'm not sure which of the two deciduous versions I prefer, but I definitely like the pines. Do you think they might look even better if you didn't shade the outer edge, but just drew the outlines of the pines without shading? The shading isn't normally part of the line work if you're intending to scan this and work it digitally. But if you intend to carry on to completion on paper, then the shading may need to be a bit lighter than that so that you can easily distinguish between the lines and the shadows.

Now that I've looked at it some more I would say that I prefer the deciduous trees on the right, but that's only because it doesn't have that thick hard shadow around the edge of the area. If you were to add more line work detail in the interior of both those areas they might look even better

All of this is purely my personal opinion, of course, so please don't pay too much attention to anything I say if I'm steering you away from a style you prefer

[Chris Lewis]

Are you drawing this in pencil, or ink. The reason I ask is that the lines seem very dark for pencil.

I'm not sure which of the two deciduous versions I prefer, but I definitely like the pines. Do you think they might look even better if you didn't shade the outer edge, but just drew the outlines of the pines without shading? The shading isn't normally part of the line work if you're intending to scan this and work it digitally. But if you intend to carry on to completion on paper, then the shading may need to be a bit lighter than that so that you can easily distinguish between the lines and the shadows.

Now that I've looked at it some more I would say that I prefer the deciduous trees on the right, but that's only because it doesn't have that thick hard shadow around the edge of the area. If you were to add more line work detail in the interior of both those areas they might look even better

All of this is purely my personal opinion, of course, so please don't pay too much attention to anything I say if I'm steering you away from a style you prefer

Thank you, Mouse. Yes, excellent thoughts as always. Yes this is entirely done in pencil. For the dark areas I used a 2HB lead (Ticonderoga wood pencil). I will keep working on the pines and practice drawing them without shading them in as you said, I think that will make them look better. I will also work on adding more line detail in the forest on the right. I figured that's what it would need. I think it has a good shape to it and that's what minimizes the cloud illusion.

Thanks again for your suggestions.
CL

[Mouse]

It might also help to get hold of a 2B or 4B pencil, and apply only very light pressure to the paper. Softer pencils have greater tonal variation, and are easier to use. You start light and gradually work darker with care.

A putty rubber (something artists use because they don't smear the graphite around or tear at the paper like common erasers) might also come in handy

[Chris Lewis]

It might also help to get hold of a 2B or 4B pencil, and apply only very light pressure to the paper. Softer pencils have greater tonal variation, and are easier to use. You start light and gradually work darker with care.

A putty rubber (something artists use because they don't smear the graphite around or tear at the paper like common erasers) might also come in handy

Excellent. I'll apply those suggestions and carry them forward.

[Mouse]

The only disadvantage of using softer pencils is that they become blunt a bit too quickly. I don't use pencil sharpeners at all, however, because they just eat up the pencil far too quickly. Instead I have a scalpel that I scrape the lead with to make a point whenever I need it. You can use any knife (as long as its reasonably sharp and not your mum's best carving knife). Do it a bit like whittling a stick, but take only thin slithers off each time.