[WIP] Tarkir

[Abu Lafia]

Thanks Barek, glad you like it.
The forest has no own texture. It's just a kind of "parchment" overlay layer on top of the plain color layers. Since it's really impossible to find a "realistic" parchment texture this big, i had to use the plasma filter (desaturated) in gimp for it. It's the one that comes closest to the look i was searching for. Still not sure how to make (draw) an actual forest texture for this map.

Btw. If you mean the working time, yes it takes literally years (the project is a bit too ambitious for me i guess)! But i can assure you, it won't need years to do something similar. Just give it a try! At least that's what i did, and to my surprise it worked out...

[Sapiento]

Looks great so far!

[ChickPea]

Looks good. I'm continually amazed by what a difference a few blobs of colour and some line work can make!

[Will Phillips]

Thanks Barek, glad you like it.
The forest has no own texture. It's just a kind of "parchment" overlay layer on top of the plain color layers. Since it's really impossible to find a "realistic" parchment texture this big, i had to use the plasma filter (desaturated) in gimp for it. It's the one that comes closest to the look i was searching for.

What I've done for my giant-sized parchment needs has been to stack multiple large-ish parchment texture layers together, and stamp clone my way into full coverage. Using multiple texture layers (hopefully) ensures that I don't get the visual effect of an obviously repeating pattern or tiles.

[Abu Lafia]

Being absent from mapping the last weeks, i went back working on my Tarkir map. A lot of things were only half finished. I started coloring/shading without having finished the entire linework, etc. So i decided to go back doing the linework. I prefer drawing on some kind of background instead of a plain white canvas, so first i added a parchment background, i made some time ago for this map.

== DISCLAIMER ==
As i've written before, the map depicts the plane/world of Tarkir, a setting in the World of MtG. It's a full-blown high-fantasy setting, formerly inhabited and thereby heavily "formed" by dragons. That's why there might be some geological "irregularities". The whole map is absolutely not trying to depict a "realistic" landscape... Immerse at your own risk!

So, i continued were i stopped last time, in the south-western quarter, the "Jeskai-Territory".
- Here i added the missing detail to the mountain range in the corner
EDIT: forgot to mention that i added a city of the Efreet there
- Also started working on the "Dirgur Stronghold", the city in the lake which i only sketched before. I added some foothills around the lake. I'm not quite sure if they fit with the rest of the mountains, as they look rather plain (and maybe a bit too crowded) to me. Would love to hear what you people think about them.
- Finally i redid the canyon leading from the Jeskai- to the Abzan-Territory with the Trading Post "Purugir". I wasn't really happy with the previous version of the canyon, being somehow "too straight" and unappealing, but i quite like the outcome of the rework


Tarkir_WIP_XV.jpg
Had to scale the image down to 70% and reduced the quality, to get it to an uploadable size...

As always, any form of comments, critique and suggestions are very welcome!

Cheers,
AL

[Lingon]

That's… huge Looks brilliant from what I could see, unfortunately it's so big it won't load properly for me. Maybe resize to something like 33%? Viewing size should never be even close to work size anyway

[ChickPea]

It's looking fantastic, Abu. What size is the original, just out of interest (can't remember if you said earlier in the thread)?

[Troedel]

That will be very good. Shading will work, we have seen that and your lines are clean and sweet. Keep up!

[Caenwyr]

This is looking awesome already, and you haven't even begun shading! There are some outright weird land shapes on that map, and they look very intriguing. Can't wait to see where this goes!

If I could give one minor remark (but I'm sure it's a matter of personal taste), maybe the parchment texture is a bit "strong", if you catch my meaning. Shading will probably alleviate that completely, but at the moment your linework seems to be overshadowed somewhat by the darker patches in your background. But like I said, just a minor point, and one that's purely personal AND will probably be fixed anyhow

[Ilanthar]

I'm so glad to see you back Abu! In particular with this fantastic project !

The new additions are great. I kinda agree with Caenwyr concerning the paper texture, but I guess it won't necessarily be a problem, depending of how you'll add the other layers (shading, colors...). And it's a cool paper texture btw.