April 2018 Challenge: Edhest, the Republic of Swords
To respect the size of the kingdom, I did as Diamond, Mouse and others: I looked for a country with the equivalent area: 111,000 square miles.
On this list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...encies_by_area) Italy has a territory of 113'000 square miles. I took the map of the country, cut surfaces, played with the coastlines and mixed all that ... I kept the total area and scale of origin, but the coasts are sometimes very different, sometimes completely recognizable.
At first, I did not want the country to look like Italy, but, after all, I think it does not change much ... If we know that this is a distorted version of Italy, we see it all immediately, if we do not know it, not sure it shows ...
I also kept the Alps in the North ... because it was handy to have a natural border with the continent.
After that, I used the grid on photoshop, in order to be able to divide the whole surface in equal squares, then I counted them to respect the distribution of the percentage between arable lands and wild lands.
I also respected the number of cities and towns (very low ....) I also considered that each city, town and village had a castle, which allowed me to limit the number of single castles to add. .. but they are all there, including the ruins.
For names, first I wanted Italian consonances, then I redid everything: the two names given by the site (Edhest and Heaton) are not at all Italian consonance, but rather English ... I remained in this tone there.
The style of the whole map is not at all familiar to me, usually I try to copy authors like Voolf, etc .... But it's been a long time that I wanted to try to make a map in the style of Kacey or Ilanthar, with a stronger presence of paper texture, halftone tones ... I hope I have achieved something not too ugly.
For the mountains, I tried to change my style, but finally I always find myself with this lineart that I do not really like ... I have to continue to practice to change my style.
For the forest, on the other hand, I managed to change my style: I drew brushes myself, which I then used in two layers: a rather fuzzy and with little opacity and another one above, sharper, with more opacity but with fewer trees. Given the scale of the map, I think it's OK and it seems to look not too bad.
For the labels, I also drew them myself. I could have tried something more fancy but I found that it did not really stick with the age of this old republic. I stayed in something pretty raw and not too sophisticated.
For the border and the elements of decoration, my inspiration remains always on the side of J.Edward ...
The maps where he draws at the same time a village or a city seen from above and, in the bottom of the page, the same city or village (or castle !) seen from the front, will always remain very strong inspirations for me.
I'm not sure I have succeeded in this challenge, especially with the city, that I find a little "shy". Maybe I should have added towers and roofs? But I did not want too much to divert the attention of the map which must remain the central element (and since the colors are more marked for the frame than for the map).
Anyway, I'm a long way from drawing such beautiful as J.Edward's... But I keep trying...
So, here's my entry for this month's challenge... Tell me if you see mistakes or if I've forgotten something, I'll try to make some corrections before the challenge ends... I hope you'll like it !
### Latest WIP ###
Originally Posted by Ilanthar
