Genabackis Style Explorations

[joshuabbutler]

Hi All,

I recently finished two maps in this style:



It looks ok, but I'm not sure if I like the illustrative style with the darkish color.

Then I tried this one, which I feel looks better with the line work. If I went this route, I could try all sorts of stuff.



Any feedback is appreciated.

[Domino44]

I think it completely depends on what kind of tone you’re trying to set for this world, I personally really like both styles, the deciding factor is simply you’re choice. Lovely work!

[Caenwyr]

I think I actually like the darker style better! What bothers me a bit in the lighter style is the fact that the colours of your landmass look really desaturated, and they might benefit from a bit more colour. That said, I think both are really beautiful, I just like one just a little bit more than the other.

One tip I could give is unrelated to colour schemes; it's about mountains! When you draw your mountains, try and make them look as if they gradually rise up from the plains. Yours now look as if they pop up from an otherwise flat terrain, which is okay, but with a simple trick you can do even better! The trick is simply to have your linework start almost horizontally and then up the angle as you move toward the summit. Give it a quick try on a piece of paper and you'll immediately see the effect.

[joshuabbutler]

I think it completely depends on what kind of tone you’re trying to set for this world, I personally really like both styles, the deciding factor is simply you’re choice. Lovely work!

Thanks. I'll probably work on my style a little more with a new map. I need to find some new paper textures to experiment with!

[joshuabbutler]

I think I actually like the darker style better! What bothers me a bit in the lighter style is the fact that the colours of your landmass look really desaturated, and they might benefit from a bit more colour. That said, I think both are really beautiful, I just like one just a little bit more than the other.

One tip I could give is unrelated to colour schemes; it's about mountains! When you draw your mountains, try and make them look as if they gradually rise up from the plains. Yours now look as if they pop up from an otherwise flat terrain, which is okay, but with a simple trick you can do even better! The trick is simply to have your linework start almost horizontally and then up the angle as you move toward the summit. Give it a quick try on a piece of paper and you'll immediately see the effect.

Thanks for the tip on the mountains. I definitely need to work on that style with more variation. On this map, there just needs to be more variation. I probably need to make the mountains bigger and more sparce.

[joshuabbutler]

I think I actually like the darker style better! What bothers me a bit in the lighter style is the fact that the colours of your landmass look really desaturated, and they might benefit from a bit more colour. That said, I think both are really beautiful, I just like one just a little bit more than the other.

One tip I could give is unrelated to colour schemes; it's about mountains! When you draw your mountains, try and make them look as if they gradually rise up from the plains. Yours now look as if they pop up from an otherwise flat terrain, which is okay, but with a simple trick you can do even better! The trick is simply to have your linework start almost horizontally and then up the angle as you move toward the summit. Give it a quick try on a piece of paper and you'll immediately see the effect.

How about this? Same style, but with small size and angle changes.

[Caenwyr]

That's definitely better!

By the way, I took the liberty to take your image and redo the southernmost mountain cluster. You'll notice most of the lines you drew are still there (well, I redid them where they were), but I slightly changed the angles of the outer bounds of each mountain so they now end in a near-horizontal stroke where the mountains transition into the plains.



How does that look?

[JoshStolarz]

Both styles definitely work, and I suppose it depends on what you want a viewer to feel looking at the map. Personally, I do like the less saturated colors in the second map, but feel like you need to build visual contrast between the land and the water. If you squint at it, I think the values are too similar which causes the land to get a little lost. So if you darken the values of the water I think it will help give that extra pop.

But, both really do look great. Either one would look awesome hanging on the wall

- Josh

[Kellerica]

I for one definitely prefer the darker version (is there anyone who is surprised? ) But for my money, what the darker version has that to me makes it work better than the lighter one: contrast. There is a stronger contrast between the deep dark blue of the ocean and the greens of the land, and that to me is what makes it look lush and lively and more alive than the lighter version, and makes it more pleasing to look at in general. I think your strong lineart works better with these type of contrasted tones too. Lighter colour makes for a much more muted whole, which in my opinion often works better with fine, delicate linework.

[joshuabbutler]

That's definitely better!

By the way, I took the liberty to take your image and redo the southernmost mountain cluster. You'll notice most of the lines you drew are still there (well, I redid them where they were), but I slightly changed the angles of the outer bounds of each mountain so they now end in a near-horizontal stroke where the mountains transition into the plains.



How does that look?

Thanks Caenwyr! That looks excellent. Perhaps I can redraw my mountains after I get the scaffolding into place. I've been having a hard time doing such delicate line work with the apple pencil. I kinda like the cartoony linework I've been doing, though your mountiains are clearly more polished. We'll see. Thanks again for the assistance!