Wip

[Dimension Door]

I’m working on this map of a tropical area for my D&D campaign. The problem is the tropical part. How do you make the forests and mountains feel tropical with just lines? I will add color eventually which will help but are there examples of tropical forests done right?

Edit: I seemed to have messed up the title of this topic. ‘Wip’ is hardly a desciptive title

[MrBragg]

I can't help you with making things look tropical, but I wanted to say I really like your mountains!

[Wingshaw]

I really struggled with this issue with my latest commission map, Orman (see the WIP here). I'm still not really sure I nailed it, but my technique was primarily to use bright saturated colours and the occasional palm tree rising above the canopy.

And like MrBragg said, it's looking great already!

Wingshaw

[kacey]

You’re mountains look great! Can’t wait to see where you go from here, this looks really good so far.

[Tiana]

Fill the trees in with a palm zig instead of rounded treetops or spiky treetops, and smooth off some of the mountain's peaks as if they were covered in foliage instead of being rough and exposed rock to get that 'tropical forest' look. It does look like a northern mountain range to me. Check out these mountains. http://toursinindia.in/images/visit-...in-kerala1.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araval...e:Aravalli.jpg See how it's been blanketed? It still has the peaks but they have a smoothness to them, they reflect the velvety grass and the mounds of trees instead of being barren rock. Of course there's likely to be a cutoff line where things just don't grow so well or at all, but implementing this in your smaller mountains and rocks will bring the jungle to life.

It does look nice and you could keep going as it is with a nice result.

[Dimension Door]

Oh, that map looks awesome Wingshaw! I really like how the forests grow darker at the edges of the sea. And the brown colours of the mountains give this warm vibe, that’s absolutely something I can use. I’d thought about palm trees but they are so difficult to get right. I’ll try and see how it turns out. Maybe I’ll design a border with tropical elements to it to guide pleople in the right direction.

And thank you all for the kind words!

[Dimension Door]

Fill the trees in with a palm zig instead of rounded treetops or spiky treetops, and smooth off some of the mountain's peaks as if they were covered in foliage instead of being rough and exposed rock to get that 'tropical forest' look. It does look like a northern mountain range to me. Check out these mountains. http://toursinindia.in/images/visit-...in-kerala1.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araval...e:Aravalli.jpg See how it's been blanketed? It still has the peaks but they have a smoothness to them, they reflect the velvety grass and the mounds of trees instead of being barren rock. Of course there's likely to be a cutoff line where things just don't grow so well or at all, but implementing this in your smaller mountains and rocks will bring the jungle to life.

It does look nice and you could keep going as it is with a nice result.

Yes! Thank you for this advice! The mountains are something to look into, they are too jagged and rocky. I~t would be nice to preserve some of the peaks but the lower mountains could be converted. And I’ll try the palm zig style forest.

[Dimension Door]

It worked! Thanks for the advice. I topped off some of the lower mountains and made a jagged forest line. it was a bit hard to get it look like a forest and not just a jagged line like a saw.

Now onto labels, borders, colors and other stuff.





draw imagination into reality

[Tiana]

Nah, zoomed out it looks like a forest, not a saw. There's a bit of a trick to palm forest edges, but most of them just all blend together. It looks good.

[kacey]

Tiana obviously gave you some good advice because those forests look fantastic! I really like how this is shaping up.