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Thread: Nestefor & Astérédia

  1. #11

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    Worktime: 8h10. Added rivers and lakes as well as some reliefs! I also finally reached a compromise with my commissioner regarding the colors. =D

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  2. #12
    Community Leader Kellerica's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eowyn Cwper View Post
    That's interesting, Kelle! And it means Vector is definitely my world!
    To each our own, eh? That's the beauty of it all. And you definitely seem to have a good handle on this, so I'd imagine you've chosen your tools well. Nice to see the rivers starting to flow. I look forward to seeing where you go from here!
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  3. #13
    Professional Artist Tiana's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kellerica View Post
    For me it usually does, yeah. It just always feels like very much effort Could just be lack of practice, and probably is. I think it's also partly because I don't like using a regular mouse that much, I prefer to use my drawing tablet for as much as I possibly can when doing anything art-related. I'm not completely against vectors, by any means, I do use them for designing logos and symbols and things like that. Most of my maps contain at least some vector elements, even if those usually get painted over pretty heavily.
    I too hate doing vector art, tablet or mouse. The blob brush makes it barely tolerable for my workflow. If I never have to vector again it will be too soon, but I know that will never be the case. While I know enough to know how this map was made, I personally have no desire to try it myself. That means that yes... it is your world, Eowyn, do art however you'd like to do it, because that's what makes your art special. I feel like people either love vector or loathe it... I only use it if absolutely necessary and actively encourage the mappers who love it to use it because then those clients won't come to me anymore. T_T Okay okay I kid, I did enjoy doing a couple of vector pieces... or maybe I just enjoyed their finished state and I've blocked out the hours of agony spent in between. Illustrator CC is far better than CS2, that's for sure.

    As for the question of commissioned artwork, the only feelings you must take into account are your clients. I never post work in progress commissions for that reason, and also, because I don't want to take into account stranger's opinions... it's for them, not for the community, so if I took work in progress videos or screenshots I only assemble them once the piece has been finalized. There is no rule against it if your client is fine with your sharing and soliciting outside feedback. I'm sure many of my clients would be fine with it too, I just prefer to keep that part of the job a back and forth between me and the visionary.

    The map is a pretty impressive piece of vector work, the mountains are grand. You will definitely have clients. I am not sold on the cartoon waves next to the realistic topographic mountains. Really, I think the best thing to do is topographic ocean terrain, maybe not to as much depth, even 3-4 stages. (I'm counting what you have as 'sandbar' and 'regular depth' so my choice would be to add a couple of levels of deeper area and maybe a couple of underwater mountains represented with some variation where it might be dangerous for ships or prone to volcanic activity. I'm interested in seeing how you represent terrain features if you choose to, in this style. I like the symbolic mountain peak measurements.
    Last edited by Tiana; 02-21-2020 at 03:28 AM.

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  4. #14
    Community Leader Kellerica's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tiana View Post
    I too hate doing vector art, tablet or mouse. .... I feel like people either love vector or loathe it...
    Oh, I don't hate it, I just find it to be too much effort to create entire artworks with it. I actually quite like it using it for logo design, there is something about the Bezier curve that I find oddly satisfying to work and adjust. So yeah, I would not say I love it, but certainly don't hate it either, so I guess you found the one located between the two extremes?

    As for the question of commissioned artwork, the only feelings you must take into account are your clients. I never post work in progress commissions for that reason, and also, because I don't want to take into account stranger's opinions... it's for them, not for the community, so if I took work in progress videos or screenshots I only assemble them once the piece has been finalized. There is no rule against it if your client is fine with your sharing and soliciting outside feedback. I'm sure many of my clients would be fine with it too, I just prefer to keep that part of the job a back and forth between me and the visionary.
    Yeah, pretty much my thoughts on the subject too. I haven't ever felt the need to post WIP shots of commissions, so I've never even bothered to seek the client's permission to do so.

    I had a little scare once when a friend of mine got confused - I was working on a commission, and also a personal project on the side. I had told my friend I had a commission in the works, and when I at some point showed him a WIP shot of the personal project, he got the two mixed up and thought it was the commission. He then happened to run into my client on the Guild Discord and told them that I had shown a piece of the commissioned map, and I had to hastily explain to my client that this was NOT the case. Thankfully the client would have been cool with it even if I had actually shown the piece I was doing for them, so it didn't turn out to be that big a deal, but the whole ordeal still shook me a little. It never hurts to be careful - it would have been entirely possible for the client to be absolutely p***ed.

    Which is not to say that don't post commission WIP's, if you have the clients permission to do so! This is more just my musings on the matter in general. I know a lot of people who feel that outside feedback makes the piece turn out better, and I can totally understand and respect that.

    I am not sold on the cartoon waves next to the realistic topographic mountains. Really, I think the best thing to do is topographic ocean terrain, maybe not to as much depth, even 3-4 stages.
    An excellent point, and one I'll second. Sorry to take the conversation a bit off-topic back there, Eowyn
    Last edited by Kellerica; 02-21-2020 at 09:19 AM.
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  5. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tiana View Post
    art however you'd like to do it, because that's what makes your art special.
    That's so supportive. <3 I'll see how I can stand out by being myself! And I'll make sure I don't steal your clients if I manage to get any!

    Quote Originally Posted by Tiana View Post
    I don't want to take into account stranger's opinions... it's for them, not for the community
    True, but I'm mostly using the community's opinion to make progress out of my current works! And possibly improve what I currently do (cf. below!).

    Quote Originally Posted by Tiana View Post
    You will definitely have clients.
    Jftrlvhtopthertkl.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tiana View Post
    I think the best thing to do is topographic ocean terrain, maybe not to as much depth, even 3-4 stages. (I'm counting what you have as 'sandbar' and 'regular depth' so my choice would be to add a couple of levels of deeper area and maybe a couple of underwater mountains represented with some variation where it might be dangerous for ships or prone to volcanic activity
    That's a really good idea, I'll talk to my commissioner about it! Shouldn't add a lot of workload either.

    Quote Originally Posted by Kellerica View Post
    Sorry to take the conversation a bit off-topic back there.
    There was no such thing, everything that you guys said has been useful in many ways! If that's really off-topic, I want more of it!
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  6. #16

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    I got more info from my commissionner so here's a new update! Worktime: 8h45.

    I added sea depth like suggested, and I began naming places (I will change the font for the summits' altitude later). He wanted a filter for Exoria; I'm pretty bad with these. He wants the island to look ashy.

    The coastline's outline has the same color as the first depth level, I don't think it's that bad but let me know if you think it is.

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    I'm kind of proud of how I made the city markers. It's the ugly currency symbol ¤ in AR Blanca, a bit rotated. Mapmaker trick!

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  7. #17
    Community Leader Kellerica's Avatar
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    Never overlook how useful font characters can be when designing mapping symbols!

    The ocean depth makes a big difference, the whole looks much more consistent now. Nice stuff. I'm not completely sold on the lettering for the labels, mind you - the style of the map is relatively modern, and I think the font used here is more suited for a faded, antique parchment look. But again, that might just be me.
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  8. #18

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    I kind of like the blend between the archaic and modern styles, a bit like it was designed too well for its time but the writing gives us a clue. I'll make sure to bring it up with my commissionner though! What do you reckon would make it even more consistent?
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  9. #19
    Community Leader Kellerica's Avatar
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    That's more than fair enough, these things do largely boil down to personal preferences.

    What I'd personally do, is try taking it a bit more strongly in either direction - either go with the clean modern look and pick a font to match (I'm personally very fond of simple sans serif typefaces), or then lean into the archaic a bit more and give the map some texture to better go with the font? To my eye, the font used for the legend and country names is fine, but the script has enough roughness to it to clash a bit with the rest of the map. I think that is font that needs to have that strong paper texture as a backdrop to really shine.

    But please don't listen to me too much, as it's very clear our work is vastly different, and thus our tastes most likely are too I'm just a well-meaning idiot, not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.
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  10. #20

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    I do NOT allow you to call yourself an idiot. <3

    Stuff happened anyway, and fonts changed. I should be done labelling Nestefor, I'm not sure I'm quite satisfied with it though.

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