The Dragon's Backbone

[Chashio]

Beautiful

[Caenwyr]

I always look closely at your maps to progress in the shading department. I haven't really got the hang of it yet concerning the river banks, general terrain and forests but I'm glad to have new study material

And I'm glad I can be of service, Thomrey! Thanks for the compliment!

Looking better each time. Will the dots to the sea, lead to any element? A ship? Maybe a larger dot at the end or run the dots off the edge, they seem a little funny just stopping. The water looks amazing love it!!!

Thanks a bunch, Snodsy! That dotted line is supposed to represent a border, but if you didn't get that, it means it's in need of some changes! What happened there in the northern sea was a fluke - it was created with the path tool, but it seems I placed two anchor points too close to one another and it kinda derped... That should be fixed now!

Absolutely amazing! I really like the style of the mountains and the forests, and the color of the water. Actually, I like the color and style of everything!
Incredible work!

Thanks Matt, I hope you're gonna like the next update as well!

Awesome! Like I said before, I really like your lineart work! and the light/shadow effect are amazing, your style is really pleasant to the eyes!

And that's what I'm aiming for of course! In my line of work I see too many maps that are informative, but just butt-ugly. I try to create something that has all the necessary information as well, but is a bit easier on the eyes. Let's see if I can pull that off with this one!

Oooh, that is lovely Caenwyr
I will have to rep tomorrow as I've repped too many today :O
But it is definitely rep worthy
The color is very well done, Yep, very well done.

You're too kind, J. Thanks for the rep!

Beautiful

Thanks Chiashio! Glad you like it!

[Caenwyr]

Alright maties, time for another update. I promised you a labelled version, but I guess I lied! You didn't expect that, did ya?

Well, I am gonna do one obviously, but I decided to get some work done to the frame and title first. I decided to put the title in a little banner IN the map, which meant I had to go back to all my layers to stitch on a band of linework, colouring and shading in the top section - I hope I managed to do that without messing things up! I also went for a slightly darker look for this update, but don't worry, it can all be tweaked or removed entirely if you guys feel the light version is just plain better.

The scribbles in the vertical parts of the frame are a conscript I developed. The language is just Dutch though, and it reads:

De rijken aan weerszijden van de Wervels van Draak. In het oosten, in de omhelzing van de Drakenvleugels, liggen de Vrijlanden van Gaendyr, dunbevolkt maar fel bevochten. Voorbij de Celwyr ligt het machtige Araniell, de slapende reus. In het zuiden ligt Faltorn, het Groot-Hertogdom van de Drakenstaart, en in het westen liggen de immer strijdende vorstendommen van Ilan, waar dit verhaal zijn aanvang neemt.

Which can be roughly translated to:

The lands on either side of the Dragon's Backbone. In the east, embraced by the Dragon's Wings, are the Freelands of Gaendyr, thinly populated but heavily battled. Past the Celwyr is the mighty Araniell, the sleeping giant. To the south is Faltorn, the Grand Duchy of the Dragon's Tail, and to the west are the ever warring principalities of Ilan, where this story begins.

dragonsbackbone14.jpg

Next up: labelling! (and this time for real )

[Tiluchi]

Holy cats, this is beautiful! No real critiques to offer, as the map so far looks sublime. I'll be interested to see how you do the labels, as the landscape colors are quite dark.

[J.Edward]

The border looks good. This is already splendid.
Can't wait to see the completed piece. It's going to be a beauty.

[Domino44]

A really fantastic job! I love the colors, the depth you added to this map, and I also really like the frame! Great work.

[Eilathen]

Wow, a very nice contribution! I love the depth of this map. The colors are very good as well. The only thing i'd wish is for a higher res. so that we can zoom in even more.
You really have developed your own style, Caenwyr. And i always like to see a new contribution from you. Your maps have the right vibe for me

[Caenwyr]

Holy cats, this is beautiful! No real critiques to offer, as the map so far looks sublime. I'll be interested to see how you do the labels, as the landscape colors are quite dark.

Yeah you're right, so I decided to do something about that! I noticed my computer monitor (well, it's a Surface Pro so the computer is the monitor) is pretty bright compared to others, so I'll have to learn to compensate for that. It's gorgeous to work on, but the result may turn out a bit dark. So I tried to fix that in this update!

The border looks good. This is already splendid.
Can't wait to see the completed piece. It's going to be a beauty.

Well here you go John! And thanks!

A really fantastic job! I love the colors, the depth you added to this map, and I also really like the frame! Great work.

Thanks bud! I decided to simplify the frame a little bit to have the "magic script" appear a little crisper - plus, that freaky bevel effect won't make it to the B&W novel version anyway so why bother

Wow, a very nice contribution! I love the depth of this map. The colors are very good as well. The only thing i'd wish is for a higher res. so that we can zoom in even more.
You really have developed your own style, Caenwyr. And i always like to see a new contribution from you. Your maps have the right vibe for me

This is great to hear Eilathen, especially from a cartographer as skilled as you! Thanks a bunch!

[Caenwyr]

So here it is people, my (hopefully) finished Dragon's Backbone map. You'll notice I:

• added a teeny tiny compass rose (bonus points if you can find it!)
• a somewhat less tiny scale
• a ton of labels

I also played with lighting a bit to make the map appear clearer on monitors that are not as bright as mine (which is the majority, so mine's plain wrong!), and played with the roads and borders a bit (dots became dashes, dashes changed into dots).

dragonsbackbone15_resized.jpg

Like all previous uploads, this too is a 70% version of the actual work file: big enough to show every detail on the screen, but small enough to hide the most horrible imperfections. If you really want to see the full-scale version however, just click on the image below - but know that I'm not responsible for terrible headaches and sudden bouts of blindness!

dragonsbackbone15.jpg

Do you think the full-scale version is good enough to be published in the finished section? Or should I go for the 70% version instead?

[ThomasR]

The hi-res version shows some imperfections (really tiny ones, you have to look hard for them to see them) in the terrain shadows department but these imperfections help us, poor sods scratching the dust, understand how you do your wonderful shadings. That's something I'm gonna study closely. The way your mountains blend into the lower grounds is astounding ! Thanks for this ! And it deserves rep just for this help ! And the map is gorgeous and the compass position is a good idea. I think I'm done