May / June '18 Lite Challenge: Kashgar
I've been wanting to try my hand at a medieval/early Renaissance Middle Eastern style map for my Persian Empire-inspired kingdom of Kashgar. In my ongoing D&D game, it's incredibly dangerous to travel to Kashgar; merchants from Duscany are the only non-Kashgarians who know the way, and it's challenging even for the most skillful ship captains to make the journey.
### Latest WIP ###
Kashgar v2 (sm).jpg
Interesting outline.
I initially assumed it was a coastline... of unusual shape. Maybe like pumice with huge gas bubbles... Or maybe Swiss cheese.
Then I looked again and it looks like the edges of a large forest of humongous trees.
Guess I'll have to wait and see.
Welcome to the challenge aeshnidae, looking forward to seeing what you do with this.
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
Thanks, Bogie!
bkh1914 - Your initial assumption was right on! It's the coastlines of 3 islands and part of the mainland.My inspiration for the style is the Ottoman Book on Navigation, which uses swooping, craggy coastlines to show all of the coves and other areas to shelter a ship.
A little update, which hopefully makes it easier to figure out that the squiggly lines are coasts.
### Latest WIP ###
Kashgar v3 (sm).jpg
Why did you put the city in the ocean? is it a floating city?just kidding, it does make it easier to tell which side is water.
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
Phew, you got me there for a moment!Originally Posted by Bogie
Why did you put the city in the ocean? is it a floating city?
The first time I saw this style of map, I was seriously confused. I spent a while thinking I was looking at a lake, when in fact it was an island.
I had to keep my foot elevated all day, so I spent a lot of time fiddling around with gold textures. I want this to look like a medieval illuminated manuscript with gold leaf and it's pretty close to what I had pictured. I have a massive amount of clean-up to do, plus I need to add at least some mountains on the barrier islands, play around with ships, and I'm toying with the idea of adding another city and/or a small building on one of the islands. So yeah...lots to do, still!
### Latest WIP ###
Kashgar v4.jpg
Nice. I tried the gold leaf but it was a fail, so nice work with this
I started a DeviantArt page
https://strafwibble.deviantart.com/
Thanks, Straf! I'm glad to have another set of eyes on it.
I've added more stuff and done a bunch of cleanup. I tried to get the rolling hills/mountains to look just like the colorful ones in the Book on Navigation and while my shading isn't quite right, the mountains are really close. These are so far from my typical mountains but I was taken with how the mountains were drawn in the book and wanted to be faithful to that style.
### Latest WIP ###
Kashgar v5 (sm).jpg
