[m]April: my map-a-day challenge

[nopkin]

Wow! You tried so many different styles while I was away, great job! Congrats for making it this far, your perseverance is really impressive. I think the traditional ones turned out much better, and day 10 looks awesome. You are very skilled with the pen and there's a lot of potential in that area. Keep up the good work!

[Ilanthar]

This last one is looking very nice, I'd say .

[Wingshaw]

Thanks nopkin and Ilanthar
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Day 11
Medium: traditional (Copic Multiliner 2.0 and 1.0 and A4 paper)
Type: top-down town map
Time taken: 1:59

Stage 2 of the challenge began today: to give myself no more than 2 hours on each map that I create. I honestly can't say that I'm working any faster, but it's always interesting to see what can be done in a tight deadline. Here's another unfinished map that I'd like to revisit in order to complete some time in the future.

Today I went back to top-down town maps, and, in particular, an old favourite of mine: Italian style hill-towns. I also borrowed J.Edward's method for showing streets (it's a really good idea, I think ).

Wingshaw

[DanielHasenbos]

Don't think I've commented on this yet, but I've kept an eye on this one so far. It's really nice to see the maps that you come up with. You've done some great stuff already, but your latest one is my favourite so far. Please finish that one once you finish the challenge!

[Wingshaw]

Thanks Daniel. It's always good to hear feedback about my maps. And I do like those Italian-inspired towns

The map for day 11 has now been updated to a proper scanned version. Unfortunately my Surface isn't working very well tonight, so I won't be able to do the day 12 digital drawing until I get it fixed. Hopefully tomorrow morning

Wingshaw

[MapMappingMapped]

Very promising isometric cities! You do excel in a variety of styles!!

[ThomasR]

This is wonderful and inspiring, George ! Great work at play here. As one who embarked on adventures such as Mapvember and Inktober, I'll add that you are very courageous too

[Wingshaw]

Thanks MMM. It's a lot of fun to experiment with different styles, and I have received so much inspiration from my fellow cartographers here at the Guild.

Merci Thomas. It's quite daunting, and I might not finish the challenge, but I like seeing what I can achieve and testing myself, and these challenges are perfect for that
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Day 12
Medium: digital
Type: top-down town map
Time taken: 0:35

Well, the bad news is that I haven't been able to figure out how to fix my Surface, and it's resulted in a delay of several days to the challenge. It seems that there's a bug that neither Microsoft nor Adobe want to deal with, and so it's going to be around for a while yet. I've managed to get a simple layout sketch done for day 12, but I'm postponing this map until the bug is fixed or I can find a workaround. I've also decided that, for the rest of the month (or until the problem is fixed) I'm going to proceed with traditional drawings only and ditch the digital approach. It's frustrating, but I think my traditional drawing is better anyway, so hopefully it'll work out alright in the end.

Anyway, all that aside, here's what I have managed to get done for day 12: it's a city map, inspired once again by my favourite part of the world - Italy. This is the city of Artanges, located on a number of islands on the edge of a lake. The inspiration in this case is clearly Venice Of course it is nowhere near finished and I had to give up after just half an hour, but I am pretty happy with the layout nonetheless

Hopefully I'll have days 13 and 14 ready to post sometime today or tomorrow morning.

Wingshaw

[Mouse]

Goodness! You really are packing them in, and they are all looking really great - even the one with the tree, which I don't think came out so bad considering you really didn't enjoy doing that one

With reference to your request for advice on using surfaces etc for drawing/sketching in general... oh, waaaaaaaaay back up the thread:

I think the most important thing is to get the right brush for the task. There are hundreds of different pen, pencil and painting brushes, so its hard to tell which one is the best. I try them all and see what they do - whether they are sensitive to pressure by opacity or line width, and so on. Then I pick my favourites and tweak the settings on those particular brushes so that they are just perfect for the way I work. After that its just practice... I think

[Wingshaw]

Thanks Mouse. I've tried many brushes and many brush settings. so, do you tend to use the same brush/brushes for all of your artworks? I'm starting to think it might be time I invest in a proper graphics tablet. Anyone else have much experience working with a Surface?
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Day 13
Medium: traditional (Copic Multiliner 2.0 and 1.0 and A4 paper)
Type: regional map
Time taken: 2:00

Here is day 13, and I think it is my best map so far. A classic regional map, but this time with a low horizon line, to give the picture a bird's eye view and show the curvature of the planet. I've seen this format/style around the Guild a bit lately, starting I think with J.Edward and currently shown in Thomas' Stevensonia map. I like it a lot, but I'd be keen to know what my fellow Guildies think

Because of my digital drawing difficulties, day 14 will be a continuation of this map, to see how much more I can get done in another 2 hours of work.

Wingshaw