1st WIP - Taymoor

[Mr Pleebus]

Hi all,

This is my first WIP, I'm working from a very basic hex map provided by my brother. It shows the region of Taymoor, a setting in our D&D campaign. Also attached is my sketch of the coast and rivers, I managed to get some nicely tapered lines.

Next step - mountains! I'd quite like to make some of my own brushes but we'll see.

Any tips or critique at this point would be very appreciated

[tilt]

Hello Mr Pleebus, and congrats on posting your first WIP

you're off to a good start - only one thing that stands out and that is the river at the city Thelladrion - rivers never split up, they only come together, so it has to flow on on side only or be two rivers (unless magic is involved and then all bets are off) Good luck in your continued mapping -it looks great for now

[Mr Pleebus]

Okay, I've chatted with my brother and he agrees with changing the river around Thelladrion. The city will now be built upriver of where a tributary meets, rather than being enclosed.

I'm looking into different mountain designs, anyone have any recommendations for a hand-drawn look? I really like the style here, but I'm not sure how to achieve the shading in GIMP: http://fragless.deviantart.com/art/3...ains-287795102

However I could just bite down and make my own stamps (quick example linked below)

[Mr Pleebus]

Update. Have neatened up the coastline, sorted the border out, fixed the river near Thelladrion and prettied up the rivers. Not totally sold on the river style but it's okay.

[kacey]

I'm looking into different mountain designs, anyone have any recommendations for a hand-drawn look? I really like the style here, but I'm not sure how to achieve the shading in GIMP: http://fragless.deviantart.com/art/3...ains-287795102

Have you checked out fantasticmaps.com he has tutorials on how to do this style of connected mountains, and if I'm not mistaken some of the tutorials there are done with gimp, and even if there not PhotoShop tutorials can easily be done in gimp for the most part... Take a look through the tutorials section I think he even has a you tube video on doing this style or something like it.

I'll go see if I can find it, and try to post a link back.

Edit... http://www.fantasticmaps.com/2015/01...ountain-range/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUFG8yeJRuw

I'm not sure if that helps it's slightly different then the picture you showed, but either way it's worth checking out, fantasticmaps.com has some excellent learning resources and Jonathan Roberts is a master at connected mountain ranges.

And if you want you're shading to look like pencil as you've shown in the example just download a nice pencil brush and start hatching, there are many free gimp brushes, Deviant art has a pile of them there's even some mountain brushes there.

And if you're looking for pre made mountain stamps or brushes check out the mapping elements section right here on the forum https://cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49 but I think it's worth the time to make you're own.

[Mr Pleebus]

Another update!

I've prettied everything up a little and added in mountains, they turned out okay but detailing is hard with a mouse. I'm thinking of getting a graphics tablet soon and that should make shading easier.

Opinions on everything so far?

[Frost Birch]

I got caught in this loops as well. Now that you are making the mountains in high detail it throws off the other parts on the map. Now are you going to force the forest detail to be as high quality? You see my point?

Also I usually draw my rivers last after I have everything else down. That way to can see the topography and know which way the rivers run and if they are hidden like in swamps...

Just throwing that out there. I'm going through the same set of rapids myself. I've got my atlas map now I am going to swing the other way and do a "hand drawn" map. We'll see how it goes.

F.B.

[tilt]

very nice mountains, they do seem a bit large/dominating (concider fx how big they are in respect to the small details on the coast outline and the "wavelines") and as Frost Birch says, they also put "pressure" on the rest of the maps details. All that aside I think you would be pleased with fading the mountains more out into the surrounding country, their graphic ends very abruptly making them appear stuck on instead of integrated ... but getting better and better - gonna be a great map

[Mr Pleebus]

Yeah they're wayy bigger than I first intended. This is quite a zoomed out map so much as I like this style I think I'll go for a top down view instead. Will add an update over the next 3/4 days, have non map-related work to do in the meantime D:

[Mr Pleebus]

So I was going to take some time off but then saw a new style of mountain and just HAD to try it. Looks better at the scale now, will need to adjust the rivers though