Igneous Isles

[jshoer]

Ask, and ye shall receive! I was thinking I'd do the linework first, but this is Photoshop now, so I couldn't resist doing a shadow layer. Also new: rivers! I think my next big task will be forests.

igneousIsle_progress4.png

I'd welcome some comments.

[jshoer]

How do you think these forests are doing? I think I need to redraw the bits south of the river.
igneousIsle_progress5.png

[Lucifer]

It may be that I simply am not used to this style of forest, but to me it seems like the part south of the river is drawn from a different isometric angle than the bits on the northern banks of the river. It's difficult to judge with how little forest there is so far though.

Other than that, I really like your map. On thing I find offputting though is your crater in the centre of the map. It looks to me as if the crater is almost drawn from a top down perspective, with the mountains etc. drawn from a more isometric view. It's confusing to the eye and somewhat breaks the style of the map. I'd suggest working on that perspective a little bit, but maybe it's just me and my weird opinions.

[jshoer]

Yeah, I will definitely redraw that forest. I think if it all looks like the portion both of the river that would be much better.

With the central volcano shield, I was trying to do basically the same perspective as the mountains, but show that the interior is at higher elevation than the exterior. I tried to make it so that if the interior lines were extended to match the exterior lines, the perspective would be the same, if that makes sense. I'll keep thinking about it.

[jshoer]

I think these trees look more consistent, not to mention better.
igneousIsle_progres6.png

[Lucifer]

Definitely more consistent, and therefore a lot better. Do you intend to keep the forest as "light" as you have it south of the river?

[jshoer]

Some more trees! I'm trying to decide where to go with it next.
igneousIsle_progress7.png

[jshoer]

Lots more trees! I also decided that the crater needed a pond and some surrounding forest.

igneousIsle_progress8.png

I'm looking for some suggestions: I want to indicate some mangrove trees clustered along the water, but mangroves don't really have a tree outline shape to them. My first attempt to drag some scraggly lines and add some shadow appears on the southern coast of the main island here, and I don't think it does the job. I'm looking to capture this kind of vegetation appearance near the shorelines. Any ideas?

[Voolf]

This is shaping up very nicely.

[jshoer]

What do you think about this way to do mangroves along the shoreline? I put some along the river outflow at the southern coast. On one side, I put the trees fully inside the coastline. On the other, they straddle the coastline. (I know they kind of look like bugs...)
igneousIsle_progress9.png