November 2018 Challenge: The Charge of Sir Arthur Bryne

[aeshnidae]

Pull up a chair, traveler. I haven't seen you around these parts before and you look a mite chilled. Not used to the mountains yet, I'd think. Arnulf! Get your fine guest a hot cider with whisky. The good stuff, Arnulf, the Julien's Reserve if you please. So my friend, welcome to Brynehall, seat of the great Barony of Northcliffe. I expect you've heard our song, eh? It's sung in taverns all over the north, the brave charge of Sir Arthur Bryne - that's Brynehall's founder, mind you - to rescue his young prince from the Dark Fey Mithrielye some 400 years gone by. I'd sing if for you myself, but then you'd flee the Bawdy Brewer here on account of my voice! But take a look at this here book from one of the fine scholars at Greystone Abbey, just a little ways up the mountain.


(Note - As mentioned in my first post, this song can be sung to the tune of Gilligan's Island.)

### Latest WIP ###


This map traces the route taken by Sir Arthur Bryne to rescue his Crown Prince from the Dark Fey Mithrielye (pronounced Myth-ree-el). This is backstory for my ongoing D&D campaign and takes place about 400 years prior to my campaign’s present-day. The story is actually a song sung by bards and in taverns across the North.

The main font is A Gothic Time; the font I used for labels is Enchanted Land. Everything was hand-drawn and colored in Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos tablet. The book is a photograph I took. I decided to add Feybane, too.

[MistyBeee]

This one has a very special charm, Azshnidae ! I love the whole idea, but there is also something really cute in your drawing this time ^^

(Not sure, but shouldn't it be "Fey Territory" ?).

[Kellerica]

Looks great! I dig the old book page idea, even though I think the map itself looks a little too neat and crisp for that page you used - you could consider adding some weathering there to better match the background. It's not really a minor issue, but just something that caught my attention.

I especially like the red leaves of the Fey forests, the little blob of color makes the area pop nicely and immediately catches the eye.

[aeshnidae]

This one has a very special charm, Azshnidae ! I love the whole idea, but there is also something really cute in your drawing this time ^^

(Not sure, but shouldn't it be "Fey Territory" ?).

It should! Thank you for catching that!

Looks great! I dig the old book page idea, even though I think the map itself looks a little too neat and crisp for that page you used - you could consider adding some weathering there to better match the background. It's not really a minor issue, but just something that caught my attention.

I especially like the red leaves of the Fey forests, the little blob of color makes the area pop nicely and immediately catches the eye.

I actually meant to scruff it up a little because I had the same thought. Normally I just lower the fill or opacity on the layer, but I didn't want to lose that pop of Fey forest color. Hopefully this version looks appropriately weathered.

### Latest WIP ###

[Kellerica]

It's certainly an improvement!

One thing you could try (this is how I always make my textures), is lay another parchment texture or two on top of the whole thing, in something like Overlay or Multiply or even Color/Linear Burn with a semi-low opacity. In this case, you'd have to mask it so it ends at the edges of the book. With this style of textures, color adjustment layers are your best friend if the textures mess your colors up. I usually have 6-10 textures on top of my map in different blending modes and another 6-10 different kind of color adjustment modes masked to various areas (some for sea, some for land, maybe a few for a singular forest or lake, etc) by the time I'm done with the map. It can be a headache getting the colors look the way you want, but it results in a thick textured look I haven't been able to hit with any other technique.

Sorry if this is badly worded, I really suck at explaining this stuff in English...

[aeshnidae]

It's certainly an improvement!

One thing you could try (this is how I always make my textures), is lay another parchment texture or two on top of the whole thing, in something like Overlay or Multiply or even Color/Linear Burn with a semi-low opacity. In this case, you'd have to mask it so it ends at the edges of the book. With this style of textures, color adjustment layers are your best friend if the textures mess your colors up. I usually have 6-10 textures on top of my map in different blending modes and another 6-10 different kind of color adjustment modes masked to various areas (some for sea, some for land, maybe a few for a singular forest or lake, etc) by the time I'm done with the map. It can be a headache getting the colors look the way you want, but it results in a thick textured look I haven't been able to hit with any other technique.

Sorry if this is badly worded, I really suck at explaining this stuff in English...

This is perfectly worded! Thank you for the tip. I do have a parchment layer over the book, but that was just to get the base color I wanted. I had not thought about doing a parchment texture as an overlay - brilliant idea! I will try to play around with this tonight. Work has been keeping me even busier than usual, but mapping is my zen place where I can ignore everything around me.

Also your English is about 1,000,000,000 times better than my Finnish. Although my second language (which I can barely speak) is Hungarian, which is distantly related to Finnish!

[bkh1914]

Great map and song.
And another great presentation.

The thing that catches my eye is the texture discrepancy between the song font and the rest of the map.
The font is eroded in a very detailed manner. The rest of the work is... slightly worn?
Perhaps it would look better with a clean font and a consistent wear texture over the whole thing.
Something to consider for next time...