MINOL - Where it all started

[- JO -]

Hello !

As my wife write medieval fantasy stories (unpublished), I've made the maps where her stories goes.

Two years ago, I've made those map on CC3. But after having discover this guild, I decided to draw those maps again, trying to improve them, fellowing the exemple of lots of confirmed artists of the guild.

I've already made one map of the area, now I want to make the map of the village where the 1st story happens.
The village is called Minol, and here's the map I've made two years ago :



And here's a sketch of this village I've made one year ago :



So now, I'll try to combine those too, in a new map, and I've called the tutorial of Jonathan Roberts to the rescue, in order to do that in the proper way...

So far, I've started to ink the top-down view of the village, and ... that's where I'm now :



Any comments, critics, ideas are welcome... as I'm quite a noob, here...

[Josiah VE]

Very nice so far, some awesome detail in there.
First of all, I really don't like that parchment texture, it's way too bright and over saturated.
Also why don't most of the buildings have an outline, it makes them faint and hard to see against the bright texture.
The detail jump between the forest and buildings is pretty big, so it doesn't look quite right. While the buildings are incredibly detailed the forest is comparatively undetailed. Though once colour and shade is in it might help.

Besides those few things it is really great, you certainly have a lot of skill. The perspective drawing is wonderful as well.

[Mouse]

Sorry Jo - I agree with Josiah about the parchment, but I expect that reducing the contrast will do most of the work for you if you have your heart set on using it

I have a suggestion to make: This time, instead of getting bogged down with a billion trees or worrying about them at all in any way, why don't you concentrate first on the village itself. It is after all the focal point of the map. Then when you have more or less completed the village it will be easier to add detail to the surrounding environment, working out from that focal point and gradually fading the amount of detail out away from the village. You won't have to do quite so much work on it as a completed map then

[ThomasR]

I agree with the above commentaries, great start but the background has got to go.

[- JO -]

Thanks you three for your good advices !!!

You're right about the parchment... I flushed it down. My first intention was to have strong paper structure, because when you put down the shadows, the structure of the paper comes out. But then I thought that the structure of the paper could even makes details from the village vanish. So here's another paper, less saturated, with less contrasted structure :



For the outline of the houses, that was my first try... but it was too "cartoonish" (?).. (As the trees, now). And it made all the details look a bit lost. So I put the outlines on an other layer, waiting to see if I really need it. I agree, I've high hopes on the shades and colors to give more presence to the buildings.

I agree too for the difference of details between the forest and the village. Even the difference of the size of the brush is too visible... I'll have to work on those woods... Probably tomorrow, as the village will soon be over with inking.
It'll probably end with a smaller brush to draw each tree (I guess I'll cheat and use some copy/paste... I still remember Thomrey expression for his afternoon spend on shading a cliff : it was like having a conversation with a non-euclidieam person).
I'll try too the idea of Mouse, shading the forest as it's far from the center...

Anyway, big thanks to you three... You allow me to avoid some traps and mistakes... after all : you're good carographers, showing me the way :-D

Best regards

PS : I'm not convinced either by my fields (the ones with the labours)... Haven't found the proper to draw them... maybe I'll rely on the shadows too...

[- JO -]

Another "tree day"...

I changed the forest in something more in harmony with the village... so, here are a lot of trees... again...

I started shading, and I thought that I would be faster now... And then I realized that I had to draw the shadows of the buildings on the ground....

....

That's gonna be a hard day...
So, there's no such things as a simple map, isn't it ????

I let that for tomorrow, for now, here's where I am :

[Mouse]

Its looking really impressive, Jo. The strange thing is that I think I actually prefer the perspective view, rather than the top one... but then, that's just me

[Falconius]

How have a I missed this thread? This map is fantastic.

[ThomasR]

Impressive JO !

[- JO -]

Thanks to all !!!