A History of Progress - Meru to Tarssos

[MPG]

Hi All,

Continuing on from my previous 'History' threads I thought I would show the work leading up to a recently completed work - Port Tarssos. One again the original concept came from an RPG I was involved in over many years, and for a while our group actually adventured in Meru, the precursor to Port Tarssos. Meru 0 was originally drawn in 2009 and slowly, over the years has evolved though various iterations into the finished Port Tarssos. Along the way I realised that the town part was too large, and the massive tower up on the high hinterland had no business being there, so I scrubbed the high town and concentrated on the cliff hugging homes and businesses, and dockside. With the tower gone from up top I had more freedom to add smaller features and change the dynamics; moving the stone circle from the northern headland up to the high fell, getting rid of the fort in the bay, and bringing the the two light (houses) towers to the fore, where they should be, from a sea captains view point at least. With some newly found features and understanding of Photoshop I was able to give more depth to the geology and more movement to the sea, and the result seems to be a far livelier effort - and much in line with what my imagination held originally, some eight years ago. I would appreciate any comments or advice on how to improve, as this is all tutorial for me.
Many thanks
MPG

[MPG]

Hi Folks, I really would like to receive some comment or critique on these please, as I am still very much a novice, so would grealy appreciate the value more experienced minds might have. Thanks
MPG

[thundercake]

I like the style of the 3rd and 5th ones the most. I think you are spot on with reducing the size of the town and removing that giant tower thing. It looks great to me!

[Edward II of Kenland]

I actually like your 4th one the most when it comes to color. I see that you made the city area pretty stark white in the 5th one compared to the 4th, and I feel it's too strong a contrast. I liked the tan color of the city better in the fourth combined with the less saturated green. The fifth one is obviously the most fleshed out, and I think technically its the best, I would just prefer that there was less contrast between the very saturated green and the white. It's a really good map!

This is more of a general question, but why aren't there buildings on the island in the river? It seems like it would make sense to have buildings on there since there are buildings on both sides of the river anyway.

[whisper_my_name]

I like the style of the 3rd and 5th ones the most. I think you are spot on with reducing the size of the town and removing that giant tower thing. It looks great to me!

I second this!

[- JO -]

It’s fascinating to fellow the evolution of your work !

I think you are on a good path. It’s only my opinion, but maybe you could try to add some details to the crashing waves on the bottom of the cliffs : they look a bit blurry compare to the cliffs (which are beautiful and detailed) and then the land masses seems to have no link with the sea.

Congratulations on your hard work over such a les no time ! It’s good to go on trying to ameliorate your map

[MPG]

I actually like your 4th one the most when it comes to color. I see that you made the city area pretty stark white in the 5th one compared to the 4th, and I feel it's too strong a contrast. I liked the tan color of the city better in the fourth combined with the less saturated green. The fifth one is obviously the most fleshed out, and I think technically its the best, I would just prefer that there was less contrast between the very saturated green and the white. It's a really good map!

This is more of a general question, but why aren't there buildings on the island in the river? It seems like it would make sense to have buildings on there since there are buildings on both sides of the river anyway.

I agree in terms of the saturated green/white contrast; I was so glad that I had solved the issue of clipping masks (that had eluded me for ages) that I went a bit mad. I will tone back the streets and trees to try and acheive more of a subtle blend in the next iteration. As to the lack of buildings on the river island - commercially it is somwhat 'disputed' territory in that the bridges on either side are controlled by different parties and the empty space more a marshalling area for goods. There will be a lot more traffic, boats etc in the final version, but I am not quite happy with the vessals themsleves yet to put more in.

Thanks for the comments - they really help to acheive a little objectivity.

[MPG]

It’s fascinating to fellow the evolution of your work !

I think you are on a good path. It’s only my opinion, but maybe you could try to add some details to the crashing waves on the bottom of the cliffs : they look a bit blurry compare to the cliffs (which are beautiful and detailed) and then the land masses seems to have no link with the sea.

Congratulations on your hard work over such a les no time ! It’s good to go on trying to ameliorate your map

Hi Jo, Ah! Good point, the land does seem a little disconnected. More detail on its way in that case. I've neem thinking about a little more shaping on the hills over looking the cove, so might tie that in with the wave/land detail.

Thanks for stopping by and offering the opnion - I really apprciate them.

[krinnen]

As said above, I too like the colors of the 4th most, followed by the 5th, and I really don't like the colors of the last version.

In the last version, I think you overdid the shadows a bit, and used a brush too big, which led to some untidy parts. I'd add small brush shadow detail to the green parts, and maybe a darker tone for the streets of the town.

Also, you have shadows with different directions (NW in that stonehenge thingy, N, NE, SE in diff' parts of the town)

[MPG]

As said above, I too like the colors of the 4th most, followed by the 5th, and I really don't like the colors of the last version.

In the last version, I think you overdid the shadows a bit, and used a brush too big, which led to some untidy parts. I'd add small brush shadow detail to the green parts, and maybe a darker tone for the streets of the town.

Also, you have shadows with different directions (NW in that stonehenge thingy, N, NE, SE in diff' parts of the town)

That's great critiquing, thanks. Detail...detail.