Working on Rivers
I began doodling this the other day while idle, and I've begun working on the rivers. Rivers have always been a problem for me, not in placing but in drawing them - I never get them to look quite right. I'm trying out a new technique with this, please let me know what you think!
map1.jpg
Last edited by Tomalak; 10-23-2014 at 04:13 PM.
They look a little too "fat" in my opinion if you're worried about scale. Instead of tapering from small where they start and increasing in width as they get closer to the ocean, they look generally the same width from start to end. I'd taper them more and make them thinner overall.
At a scale like this, all rivers are going to be generalized symbols, not exact representations: exact would be invisibly thin. Your irregular river thickness looks like you're trying to faithfully capture differing real widths of waterway - but the line work is maybe from five to thirty miles wide. The placement and path look okay. I'm not sure I buy the closeness of the two not-connecting southern lakes, but it's not illegal (says RiverCop ;-) ).
If you just want the irregularity of hand-drawn elements, less stark thickness changes would do. Your ocean shading lines are okay examples of such roughness a) but not when closely examined (distinctly digital) and b) not in comparison to the precise single-width coastlines.
Sorry for the off-topic post, but the wife and I have been re-watching all the Star Trek TNG episodes and I'm wondering if your login name is taken from the Romulan officer of that name?Originally Posted by Tomalak
It is!
the late Andreas Katsulas played two of my favorite science fiction characters, Tomalak and G'Kar (Babylon 5). He also had a pretty great attitude and was a good influence - the sort of person that deserves respect and admiration. So I use the name Tomalak around forums, because G'Kar was a better defined character and I use the name in tribute, rather than imitation.
I was just reading about him. We had just seen the episode Future Imperfect, and I make a habit of checking out the Memory Alpha description of each episode after watching. One of the interesting bits of information there was this about Katsulas:
Guest star Andreas Katsulas was not comfortable with his recurring role as Tomalak in this episode. "I felt much more comfortable when he was an incredible giant on the screen, just a face. Suddenly when I had to account for everything else, I didn't feel support and nothing was supporting what I was doing. I was happy not to recur unless it would have gone back to a screen character."
Shows the guy is a thoughtful actor and also humble - because he had no problem at all carrying off the character in that particular episode.
As a fan of the show's many incarnations, it's always disappointing when an actor or actress is cast in a way that doesn't match what you expect about a particular race. The first 6 movies had some lousy vulcans for example... between Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and Mark Leonard (Sarek) the vulcan has been perfectly defined. But Katsulas is an example of great casting - he's what a Romulan should be.
Anyway, I'm still hijacking the thread so... back to your regularly scheduled map critique!
IMHO, the very best epitome of a Vulcan was Kirstie Alley as Saavik in The Wrath of Khan.
A fabulous actor, he also played Vissian Captain Drennik in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode Cogenitor.
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