January 2015 Challenge: The Lost Village

[Bogie]

I think the forest will look okay once you add some shading.

[Chick]

And the buildings. These are drawn using the pretty little CSUAC buildings and clusters as guides. I also finally figured out how to do straight lines in photoshop, since my hand refuses to do them. I've decided my second grade teacher was right to flunk me in Drawing, I am totally hopeless without aids.

### Latest WIP ###

Challenge Jan2015 05.jpg



So my to-do list is now down to

1. Shading mountains
2. Shading forests
3. Doors and windows for the buildings
4. Shading buildings
5. Rippling the water
6. Numbering the buildings
7. Writing the legend

I'm sure the list will grow ....

[Mark Oliva]

I have just spent two hours of my life drawing 7,812 little tiny tree trunks. Someone please tell me there is an easier way to do this.

Sure. Leave the trunks off. You don't need them.

[tainotim]

Thats cool Chick! I like the forest, I think they melt in just fine between the mountains for that depth effect. Each component of the map is in a style that works together, which is a important thing to nail for that overall impression.

Concerning the tree trunks, you could just make a tree trunk brush (if in PS), or make a pattern i believe.

The only thing really bothering me is the heavy, heavy parchment texture. But other than that, waiting for your next update!

Cheers,
Tainotim

[Chick]

Sure. Leave the trunks off. You don't need them.

A great idea! Wish I'd thought of it

[Chick]

Concerning the tree trunks, you could just make a tree trunk brush (if in PS), or make a pattern i believe.

A tree trunk brush would just be a tiny line, and each one would still need to be placed individually. The pattern idea is better, but I tried that once before and tried Drop Shadow and Outer Glow to place it, but it ended up being a lot of trouble to erase where I didn't want it, instead.

Both good ideas, and maybe for forests of this size, the pattern would have been easier after all. Thanks for the suggestions!

[Deadshade]

I'm not sure what you mean, Deadshade, about the regularity of the lines. Most of this, including the coastlines and river, are drawn in one long pen stroke. Is that wrong?

.

Hehe nothing is wrong in hand drawing
It's only that if you make a long stroke you'll generaly get a regular smooth line. If you wanted irregular and rugged, short strokes are better.

When you do a mountain range, do you see it in front of your inner eye or do you draw each mountain like a stamp (e.g independently from the global context) ?

To illustrate what I mean, I cut out one part of your picture and made a superfast sketch.
I only erased the lines that didn't fit and added lines that naturally follow from your context - otherwise it's exactly what you did.
I just added some crude shadows because when I do a line I can't stop myself adding shadows to remind me the orientation of the surface. This helps to avoid lines that don't fit.
Basically I was only imagining what you wanted to do and copied on paper what I was seeing in my head.
I hope it helps.

Challenge%.jpg

[Chick]

Deadshade, you are a wonderful artist, but there is no way I can draw like that I did actually try to make ridge lines, but I pictured them running top to bottom of the map. Also, the amount of detail (for example on the cliffs) maybe exceeds what someone drawing a map like this on parchment would do.

In fact, I even put ground shadows on the buildings, but then looking at it, it made no sense that someone drawing this map would do that, so I took them off.

So here is the next iteration, with buildings, and with shadings that seem to make sense for this type of map. I'm of course open to alternate opinions

### Latest WIP ###
Challenge Jan2015 06.jpg

That leaves me with

The waterfall (ouch, more drawing)
Water ripples
Numbering the buildings
Writing the legend

Comments and opinions always welcome!

[Wingshaw]

A few minor points:
--the outline of the forest is perhaps too thick and dark, compared to other lines on the map;
--I think you should try including a few shadows on the left-hand side of the mountains to represent the roughness of the surface: currently it looks as though they are perfectly smooth slopes on that side. Deadshade's drawing shows the kind of thing I mean
--I'd recommend dropping the opacity on all of your linework. At the moment, the sheer black looks too fresh for an aged map. If you reduce the opacity to, say, 40%, it'll still be clear, but look more convincing (drop the opacity on shadows etc too, if necessary)
--I don't know if you've already planned this, but some subtle colour would look nice on the different elements;
--this map would probably look good with some farmland near the village. Farmland can be as hard or as easy as you want. An easy method, is simply roughly parallel lines to represent furrows in the ground, some gonig one way, and others going a different direction. A more difficult one is to draw fields, with fences, hedgerows, lanes etc.
--some trees among the houses, perhaps?

A few more things: first, regarding treetrunks: I have experimented with patterns before, and don't like the look. One thing you can do with treetrunk brushes, though, is set the spacing to >100% (about 250% is usually good, in my opinion), and then paint all the tree trunks in one continuous brush stroke. It can also help to play around with shape dynamics on the brush, to give a bit of variation.

Second, when it comes to drawing, I think, as, I presume, does Deadshade, that short strokes of the pen (or stylus) makes for quicker, more flexible, and, generally, more realistic drawing. Perhaps you should give it a try?

Third, it doesn't seem to me like a good idea to base this map on what another cartographer would do. If adding shadows to the buildings looks good, you should keep them in, regardless of whether that is the sort of thing a person would do when drawing a map like this. There are so many different styles and aesthetics, that I am positive some cartographers would draw shadows, others wouldn't; just as some people would use contours, others pictograms, and others might paint mountains with watercolour pencils. (Hope that makes sense; I think it could have been clearer).

THW

[Larb]

This is a nice map but I think you should try lowering the strength of the background parchment texture. It is quite high contrast and heavily saturated so I think it could use a few passes to add more subtlety to it so it isn't quite so overwhelming.