Commission - Arkaias

[Caenwyr]

Well, I think I can say I made some progress! Linework for the mountains is redone, and shading is finally finished! Whoohoo! I can sleep now.

Next up: a sprinkle of lakes in the north as per the clients request, and some forests. But that's for another day, and another update.

Arkaias_8.jpg

Fun bonus fact: the shading is so ridiculously detailed that the map even kinda works without the linework. Does that mean I overdid it?

Arkaias_8_withoutlinework.jpg

[ThomasR]

Will you ever stop torturing us !!!!
Seriously, that's some awesome shading ! The map's got an eerie feeling without the linework, it's truly wonderful ! Deserves rep already.

[vorropohaiah]

i honestly thibnk its nice without the lines! maybe making the lines thinner or more opaque might bring out the shading/highlight details better?

[Caenwyr]

Hah, thanks for the compliments guys! I agree that there's some potential in the shading, but if I want to do it right, I should either redo the entire linework, or pour a ridiculous amount of time into the shading for it to represent the terrain more clearly (here the edges are rounded, which is fine since the "real" edge is represented by the linework). Two options I might consider in future work, but not here. I'm pushing toward the finalisation here

[Josiah VE]

Well, it looks fabulous.

Both look great, the linework makes it seem more 'solid' while only the shading really makes it feel like the mountains are part of the terrain, pretty cool. But since this is a commission I think it would probably be better to go the route you are familiar with and with a personal map do testing with styles..

[jshoer]

This is lovely and amazing.

[Caenwyr]

Hi there all! Below you'll find my most recent update. I added the forests and some lakes, and - for the time being - deactivated the title frame.

Arkaias_11a.jpg

next up: a scale (shouldn't take too long), and some final little tweaks, and it's done!

[Josiah VE]

I have to say, that was quite fast! I guess it is only the very basic staple terrain of a fantasy map, mountains and forest. Looks awesome! You've really developed your own style, a style that I love!

[Caenwyr]

Thanks Josiah, and glad to hear something of a style is starting to appear . I normally would add cities and roads and kingdoms and borders all sorts of other labeling stuff, but the client wanted it "in the nude" so that's what I deliver!

[Caenwyr]

Okay so this is crazy. I was staring at this map for a bit and began to think "well, these guys have a point. The linework is kinda thick. It hides the detail of the shading layers beneath it!" So I started playing around a bit, thinking it would surely be impossible to get them to lose some weight without me actually redrawing everything..... and then this happened:

Arkaias_14.jpg

It actually worked! I had never thought it would, but I managed to get the line weight down from 3 px at its thickest to something closer to 2, maybe 2.5 px. And that is just awesome. Thank you weird PhotoShop selection thingy!

Some other stuff I did yesterday (before I discovered this):
- added a scale
- played around with the compass a bit
- went along the coast with a (luckily somewhat thinner) brush and sketched in some terrain features

I can't really explain why, but even though these features were added before I thinned out the linework, they seem to get along together just fine. No weird transitions - nothing. Which is awesome.

So tell me! Do you like the thinner linework? I've kept the old versions as well (as any bug fearing and pixel-abiding citizen would do), so I can switch 'em in a sec if need be.