[WIP] Tarkir

[snodsy]

The line work is one of my biggest issues, I think your line work is really, really nice. Great to see this moving along, looking forward to seeing more.

[Abu Lafia]

Thanks, snodsy! So, after some days off this map i started with lights & shades... again and again i'm absolutely fascinated how they breathe live into the cold dead skeleton of black lines
Many, many thanks to J. Edward, who sent me a great little tutorial about how to come to grips with colors and light. If he's ok with it, i'll maybe post it here soon, since i think it might be helpful for others too. I mainly followed his advice here, although i altered some things (...well i was a bit lazy... ). Atm it's just a plain brown-grey, but with having light and shade just in greyscale on seperate layers (thanks again for the hint John!) i can alter the color later. There are still a lot of things to tweak and to clean up.
I also made some progress with the landscape in the western part of the map. But i'm not too happy with the canyon between Abzan and Jeskai territory atm... will see if i keep it like this.
Tarkir_WIP_Xa.jpg

Cheers,
AL

[Chashio]

Hey, I happen to like line art but I also like shaded work. I used to do the light and dark on two layers like you mention but I kept forgetting to switch between them and got all fuddled. Now I mostly just do greyscale on one, if not the whole picture. And it is possible, at least in Photoshop, to separate individual values and colors to change them later if necessary, with a slightly more involved process, but I don't know about Krita. Anyway, as long as you don't forget which layer you're on, the method you're using is a good one and the result looks good. I bet a lot of people would find that tutorial useful if J. allows it, or if he posts it somewhere else.

Oh, and about the canyon... it looks good stylistically but you might consider letting it wander in direction more and add a few side passages that narrow and close off after a point.

[J.Edward]

Looks good Abu.
You can post it if you want. Happy if it helps people.
And here's one back at you - I was inspired by some of your mountains and did some recently based on them.
It wasn't for a map but for a book illustration. They will get posted on DA sometime soon.

[ChickPea]

Those mountains are looking fab! You've really given them a sense of depth that lifts them off the page.

I'd love to see J's tutorial if everyone's happy to share it.

[Ilanthar]

The light & shadows are fantastic (as the linework). Knowing that you've certainly a lot more to add (desert, forests, labels, etc.), I'm more than confident you'll do a great map . And btw, that tutorial would be of a great help, I would glady rely on a true method for this...

[Abu Lafia]

Hey, I happen to like line art but I also like shaded work. I used to do the light and dark on two layers like you mention but I kept forgetting to switch between them and got all fuddled. Now I mostly just do greyscale on one, if not the whole picture. And it is possible, at least in Photoshop, to separate individual values and colors to change them later if necessary, with a slightly more involved process, but I don't know about Krita. Anyway, as long as you don't forget which layer you're on, the method you're using is a good one and the result looks good. I bet a lot of people would find that tutorial useful if J. allows it, or if he posts it somewhere else.

Oh, and about the canyon... it looks good stylistically but you might consider letting it wander in direction more and add a few side passages that narrow and close off after a point.

Thanks for the suggestion for the canyon Chashio, i will definitely give it a try to make it look less "straight". PS seems to have indeed some more options (otherwise there wouldn't be a reason to pay for it i guess ). Btw. for this step i went back to gimp, as i still feel more comfortable with it (and with my old toaster it seems faster handling the huge canvas...)

Looks good Abu.
You can post it if you want. Happy if it helps people.
And here's one back at you - I was inspired by some of your mountains and did some recently based on them.
It wasn't for a map but for a book illustration. They will get posted on DA sometime soon.

Thanks a lot, i feel flatterd and can't wait to see what the illustration looks like!

Originally Posted by ChickPea
Those mountains are looking fab! You've really given them a sense of depth that lifts them off the page.
I'd love to see J's tutorial if everyone's happy to share it.

The light & shadows are fantastic (as the linework). Knowing that you've certainly a lot more to add (desert, forests, labels, etc.), I'm more than confident you'll do a great map . And btw, that tutorial would be of a great help, I would glady rely on a true method for this...

Thank you both, much appreciated! I'll try to arrange the tut tomorrow, since John made it a .psd file, i'd have to convert it somehow into a pdf or something...

Here's another small update of the so far only shaded northern mountain range. You can clearly see the rising pressure i applied to the mountains in the middle during the soccer match my team lost today I also blocked in some green for the location of the forests in the valleys.

Tarkir_WIP_XIa.jpg

Cheers,
AL

[Chick]

You're doing a great job with this, but I just gotta say one thing. This is about the third map I've seen recently with mountain peaks that lean over. Mountains don't erode that way, and even if they somehow managed to, the weight would break it off very quickly. It just screams NO at me and detracts from the really nice look of all the rest.

Otherwise ... keep up the marvelous work!

[snodsy]

This is looking really nice, I'm looking forward to seeing how you integrate the forests into the Mountains. I to would love to see the Tutorial of the light and shadow. Keep up the great work.

[J.Edward]

Hey Abu, I just uploaded the stuff I was telling you about, the stuff you inspired me to do.
Here's the link - http://sirinkman.deviantart.com/art/...ages-560045130
The Dragontooth mountains were especially inspired by what you're doing here with Tarkir.