Valerna - a map for Itza's Guide to Dragonbonding

[l'Arpenteur]

Hello Guild!

Here is the result of the last month of work: A map of Valerna, done for the 5E campaign supplement "Itza's Guide to Dragonbonding" by DracoStudios.

What a month this has been... Phew! A lot of work went into rendering, coloring, and texturing the final artwork but whoa! This had been amazing to make.
I'm so happy with it, and in the craziest way I mean. My process really have changed while working on it (only using the mixer brush tool and mixing my colors directly on the canvas), giving it this nice oil on canvas finish.
I'm really digging this colorful yet mature style, and I think it opens the door to some new horizons: I finally can see myself painting moody maps with expressive brushstrokes and dramatic lightnings.

Anyway, I'm really proud to show it to you, fellow cartographers! I hope you'll dig it as mush as I do

PS: File attached is compressed and won't do justice to those tiny little texturing details. I'm posting tiny crops of them on my IG page.

VALERNA - CartoGuild.jpg

[TallShepherd]

Wow this is awesome! Love the whole atmosphere of the piece. Really makes me want to explore on the tabletop! The subtle colour of the outline is beautiful too.

[l'Arpenteur]

Wow this is awesome! Love the whole atmosphere of the piece. Really makes me want to explore on the tabletop! The subtle colour of the outline is beautiful too.

Thank you!

[XCali]

Love this. Really well done. What is the texture process you used? It fits amazingly well for this kind of map. I would love to learn to do it that way.

[l'Arpenteur]

Love this. Really well done. What is the texture process you used? It fits amazingly well for this kind of map. I would love to learn to do it that way.

Well this is mostly just handpainting with impasto brushes and smudges over an image of both lineart combined with background colors. At that point, you just need to mess things up.

[IllustratedPageBookDesign]

This is so gorgeous! I love the colors and textures. I feel like I always struggle with the colors on maps -- getting a cohesive scheme that fits and that looks good. You did it amazingly here!

[l'Arpenteur]

This is so gorgeous! I love the colors and textures. I feel like I always struggle with the colors on maps -- getting a cohesive scheme that fits and that looks good. You did it amazingly here!

Thanks, the colors was indeed my primary focus!

[Kellerica]

Loving the way you handled the sea in this one! Always glad to see more from you.

[l'Arpenteur]

Loving the way you handled the sea in this one! Always glad to see more from you.

Thank you Kel'!

[hyn_works]

it's really wonderful! Is it possible to know what software did you use? I would like to try to draw this kind of maps (usually I draw cities) !