Glad you jumped in
This should be fun to watch.
January 2020 Challenge : Map of Ulrizen
Hello, fellow cartographers!
The year 2020 has barely begun and I already need a project that occupies my thoughts about something other than work! So I'm going to try to join this January challenge...
I must admit, without much conviction, because I haven't found an old map very inspiring. I dived into my archives and found an adventure I had written for a part of Dungeons & Dragons. I know it's not my oldest map, because I had started drawing earlier, but this module for D&D level 1-4, I must have written it in the late 80s or early 90s... here's what it looks like :
DD couverture.jpg
I don't think we even finished playing that saga because it was soooooo long.
To write it, I was inspired by quite a lot of references from what I was reading at the time, from the Lord of the Rings to a comic book quite famous in the French-speaking world (Thorgal).
The story was set in a Viking atmosphere, it was about a curse that had fallen on a northern kingdom (launched by Sauron himself - and yes, I was afraid of nothing at the time!!!) A series of 5 magical objects that protected the kingdom had been scattered throughout the region (a sword, a helmet, a shield, a scabbard and a precious stone) and evil had descended on the region. The adventurers had to find the 5 objects and pass through the gates of time with the king of the region to return just before the curse began. If the king was carrying the 5 items at that moment, the curse did not take place (This is basically what is written in French below).
Histoire Ulrizen.jpg
For the whole adventure, I had drawn a large map of the area (in addition to the plans of all the dungeons to visit), laminated and everything... This is the one I'm going to try to bring back to life, but I find it not very inspiring : too flat, not various enough...
Vieille carte ulrizen.jpg
And I have to admit that I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. My first idea would be to respect the fact that it's a map that tells an adventure, so I'm going to try to put as many details that tell the story as possible, while letting the curse that strikes the kingdom appear. To do that, I'm very willing to take a big risk and go outside my comfort zone, by using a style that fits well with the main line of what I want to do, but that I don't master at all: that of a medieval tale, full of illuminations, a bit like "The very rich hours of the Duke of Berry". By cheating on the scale of the different elements of the map, I should be able to tell several things in a single map. I would also like to keep two inserts, for text (again, in the style of an old medieval book)... I don't know at all if I'll be able to do that (and if the result will be edible), but I'll still try the adventure...
Here's what I've got for now...
### Latest WIP ###
Ulrizen guilde 01.jpg
Glad you jumped in
This should be fun to watch.
Artstation - | - Buy Me a Kofi
Great start! I'm glad we have so many great mapmakers joining this challenge!
Go for it Joel, it's already promising !
Originally Posted by J.Edward
Glad you jumped in
This should be fun to watch.Thanks a lot for the encouraging words ! I'll start moutains and trees now...
I'm liking where this is going. It has "style" already.
Thanks a lot Ilanthar ! I'm moving forward (I think) with lots of detours... I still don't know exactly what I'm doing. I'm afraid I can't really go out of my confort zone, becaus I keep falling in old habits (hence the many erasing-redoing). Here's what I came up so far :I'm liking where this is going. It has "style" already
### Latest WIP ###
Ulrizen guilde 02.jpg
Work of the day...
I have drawn the 5 main places of the quest, but I still have to make inserts with the 5 objects to be found, in order to draw attention to these places in particular.
I'm still not sure I can follow the "old parchment illumination" style faithfully. I feel like I'm falling back into the "comic book illustration" style. Maybe I'm going to lower the opacity of the shadows and strokes again to make the whole thing "flatter"?
anyway, that's what I've got so far...
### Latest WIP ###
Ulrizen guilde 03.jpg
Damn, mate, that big castle looks awesome. I see what you mean about maybe losing the "old parchement style" a little bit, but even so, the illustrations look great. The only thing I'd personally watch out for is the large difference in linework width/strenght. Right now the coastline has a much wider line than the castles, for instance, and I think it may make the whole look just a bit inconsistent? I do like the fuzziness of the lineart in general, though, gives it a nice atmosphere.
I see what you mean, and you're right... It's out of style (if there's any). I think I was trying very hard not to fall in the "comic book style" with a hard line around every item. And yet, I did it with all the buildings... I tried to lower opacity of these lines, so they are pratically invisible, I think I'll try the same method with the coastline, maybe it works.
Anyway, thanks a lot for pointing out this issue !
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