Style test, watercolor coast

[Lingon]

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since I posted anything here, my last map was destroyed by a pen claiming to be waterproof but wasn't, and I lost a bit of motivation there. But looking back I don't think it was a very good map anyway, so now I've experimented with a little different style.

I primarily wanted to test a coast line type I had in mind, but I ended up throwing all kinds of elements in there. I'm toying with a map idea, and I guess I crammed everything I plan to include on it into this test piece.

Here it is:
Stiltest.jpeg

Ink pen and watercolors, on a cropped A4 (actual image is more like A5).

The coast lines, which where the main thing when I began, didn't turn out so great; I intended to have a really smooth transition from the pale blue to black. I'll have to work on that.

Anyway, what do you think? Trying to decide wether to draw the forests as well, or if that would become to abstract on a continent sized map. The bit in the south with the rivers is supposed to be jungle, if that comes across I guess trees would be superfluous, but I'm not sure if it does. I'm also thinking about skipping the colors altogether and just go for an aged paper look on everything, and then trees would probably be necessary.

I'd love to get some opinions

[Lingon]

Ok, I tried out the changes I was thinking about, and came up with this:
Stiltest2.jpeg

The coast lines turned out better now I think, and I prefer this kind of forests. I put less definition on the sand dunes as well. The rivers disappeared a little among the trees at first, so I drew them with thicker lines, and I don't really like how that turned out. Should be easy to avoid by just keeping more distance between forests and rivers though.

Actually, I'm not entirely sure about why I'm posting this Not much to discuss I suppose. This is what I'm up to, anyway. I think I'll start a full map in this style soon

[carrion]

What are you using, watercolor or those watercolor pencils.
Are you going to stick with just the sepia or are you thinking of adding color again, just not as pronounced as the first map.

[Lingon]

Normal brush-applied watercolors. These two little maps were just experiments so I won't work any more on them, but on a bigger piece that I actually began today I'll use the second variant, with a better aging effect on the paper. I'll put up a WIP thread in the Region/World Mapping section.

[MarcoOostendorp]

I like the second version better but that is just personal taste, the first one seems to 'sharp' to me.

[priggs]

I like the first, but I tend to like color a lot.

For some inspiration take a look at Mike Reagan's work:
Interview with map artist Mike Reagan
Mike Reagan's website

Also, here's a very good series of videos for learning watercolor washes.
Sean D'Souza watercolor wash series

[Lingon]

Inspirational indeed! Thanks for posting!