jshoer's workshop

[jshoer]

I see several workshop threads around, and since I've been doing some more studies lately...hey, I should have one!

I will start off with a shallow perspective view of an island that I did over the course of a day last weekend. I wanted to play with the perspective, the mountains, the jungle, and the colors, inspired by some things I saw in Max's workshop thread, and somewhere else where Max had suggestions about jungles. (Thanks, Max!) While maybe a little too slanting a view for a real map, there are definitely elements here I want to draw from.

IMG_7947.JPG

Pen and colored pencil.

[ChickPea]

Very pretty! The jungle looks good though I think I would have swapped the colour of it with the surrounding greenery. The colour you've chosen has a blue-ish tone (on my monitor, anyway) and this makes it feel a little colder compared to the brighter green that surrounds it. It's a very nice pic though.

[jshoer]

Thanks ChickPea. I see what you mean about the blue tinge. I was experimenting with new pencils! Glad I experimented first.

[jshoer]

I just bought some Prismacolor markers to try out putting shadows on overhead line art maps. I've never done that style map before, but I see a lot of potential for being able to add gray toned shading to line art. Here's my first test piece, which I whipped up in an hour or two. (I got impatient on completing the outer wall. Hence the name of the stronghold!)

freehand.JPG

[jshoer]

This Moleskine obviously needed a fantasy novel lead-in...

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[jshoer]

I was feeling very autumn-y, so I put this together over the last couple days.

mountainDay.jpg

I guess this one isn't really a map so much as a landscape. I'm practicing my perspective, trying out ways to represent color trees in the fall, practicing with color pencil shading (without painting afterward), trying to get a really bright light by leaving whitespace, and using my art markers to put down shadows before I colored over it all with pencil.

[Greg]

Lovely colours and perspective in this piece jshoer! I think a bit more shadowing could have helped particularly around the house on the right and the front trees, but otherwise it looks pretty...well...pretty.

I'm afraid though, I can't unsee all those trees as anything but a massive load of balloons like in Up. Still cool, whichever way you look at it.

[Mouse]

Oh!

What a lovely spectral sense of colour you have

IMHO - If you wanted to turn something like that into a map, I think you might want to fly a bit higher and look down a bit more than you are with this POV. A few paths through the trees might also help, but its lovely as it is as a hybrid 'mapscape'.

[jshoer]

Lovely colours and perspective in this piece jshoer! I think a bit more shadowing could have helped particularly around the house on the right and the front trees, but otherwise it looks pretty...well...pretty.

I'm afraid though, I can't unsee all those trees as anything but a massive load of balloons like in Up. Still cool, whichever way you look at it.

Ha!

Yeah, it was interesting to me to find out how the shadows came out better in some places than others. I used the same marker for all the shadows, and although it's easy to see on the yellow and orange trees, it's completely hidden under the green ones, as well as many of the red and brown. A darker marker would have been good for some of those, and for the deeper shadows where you mentioned. I'm learning about how these things layer up - the shadows looked great and consistent before I colored it all in!

Oh!

What a lovely spectral sense of colour you have

IMHO - If you wanted to turn something like that into a map, I think you might want to fly a bit higher and look down a bit more than you are with this POV. A few paths through the trees might also help, but its lovely as it is as a hybrid 'mapscape'.

Thanks! I totally agree; this could be a low-perspective map if the point of view was just a little higher. I tried to put a meandering break in the trees where the river runs. That turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated so I didn't do all that much. I'm glad you like the colors!

[ChickPea]

Lovely colours with this, Joseph. I'd enjoy a wander through those woods (assuming you haven't hidden any nasty surprises in there!)