Making of Qaliste

[J.Edward]

I was going to do the wip while working but it just progressed rather quicker than I planned.
So I'm putting it up here after the fact. Here's the finished map of Qaliste.

As said previously, this whole thing came about because I bought some new fonts and wanted to try them out.
So I took an old map and dropped some fonts on it. I quickly wrote up some 'inspirational' text and tried out several fonts.
I love type and lettering so I was having a good time. [ yep, total nerd. ]
Here's where it started

Well, technically, it started back in 2012 with this sketch.
and then this redo

Now, I've been slowly plugging away at an atlas style that wasn't often very popular.
But I knew I could make it better if I worked at it. Here's some progression on that concept.


It was getting better. Then The ME maps gave me a push. Then working on Haerlech got me a little further.


But back to that motivational text...
After looking at the text, I thought 'your map doesn't look good enough for that text and what it says'.
So I had to do something to it. I got to working on it for a bit...


I was happy with it but realized that I couldn't leave it there. It needed more.


It went a few steps further to it's current form. And a nice antique version.


I still want to do some more work to it. I wanted to do a really cool border and maybe some other bits.
But then I got myself drawn in to making the whole world that Qaliste sits in.
Obviously that's going to take some time to do.

At the moment I am considering trying to make a campaign product out of this with additional maps and such.
I have some stuff I need to learn about putting together and releasing product on DTRPG though.

[Diamond]

You amaze me. You really do. This is fantastic, super-detail-oriented, beautiful, visionary, hypnotic work. I would buy ANY roleplaying product envisioned by you, with your maps.

In fact:

[AzurePlanet]

Awesome! Amazing!
Thank you very much J. for posting all this precious information!
It's very cool to see your written statement and the development from hand-drawn sketch to finished maps.

I have been particularly impressed by the maps of "Carmegenny Area" and "Island of the Moon": I simply love that effective management of contours and shadows. May I ask you if you made DTMs too? Can you explain how did you get that realistic shadowing?
Finally, can you tell some more about the graticule in the maps of Qaliste? Is that a particular geographic projection?
Thanks again in advance for your kind replies.

[Larb]

I wish I could get that kind of quality in my regional maps - I find them soooooo difficult.

A campaign product would be pretty impressive to see especially with some of your illustration work too (it'd make for a very evocative setting).

[ChickPea]

Thanks for sharing this. It's fascinating to me to see your process and how you develop your art.

[J.Edward]

You amaze me. You really do. This is fantastic, super-detail-oriented, beautiful, visionary, hypnotic work. I would buy ANY roleplaying product envisioned by you, with your maps.

In fact:

Well that's a confidence booster for sure.
I'm working on laying out the whole world where Qaliste sits so I know more about it.
But I am going to try to put together something with this one.

Awesome! Amazing!
Thank you very much J. for posting all this precious information!
It's very cool to see your written statement and the development from hand-drawn sketch to finished maps.

I have been particularly impressed by the maps of "Carmegenny Area" and "Island of the Moon": I simply love that effective management of contours and shadows. May I ask you if you made DTMs too? Can you explain how did you get that realistic shadowing?
Finally, can you tell some more about the graticule in the maps of Qaliste? Is that a particular geographic projection?
Thanks again in advance for your kind replies.

No, didn't make DTMs. Would like to. I have always tried to find a good way to make my maps into 3d terrains but it's complex.
I have found it easier and faster to learn to just draw/paint them.
There are definitely advantages to having them as 3d but the time and difficulty involved is immense.
I used to work with old Terragen and have used Vue Infinite for a number of years.
The current version of Vue [that I don't have] has a feature that would let me use a base map then paint the terrain.
That might prove very helpful and save a load of time too.

The light and shadow is just layers - light is usually set to soft light. Shadow is usually set to multiply.
I use varying shades of warm greys for light and shadow. It's all just hand done. Takes a long time but I don't know another way to go about it and get the same results.
I learned a lot about light and shadow when I was doing 3d work years back. I used to create stock 3d models for sale on a few sites.
I religiously look at satellite images of terrain. That helps too.

I wish I could get that kind of quality in my regional maps - I find them soooooo difficult.

A campaign product would be pretty impressive to see especially with some of your illustration work too (it'd make for a very evocative setting).

I know what you mean Larb. I had trouble achieving this for years. It took a long time and a concerted amount of direct effort to get to this point.
I used to try things and they wouldn't work. I gave up on a lot of maps for a long time. It was really frustrating too.
I knew I could draw. I was okay at painting. But I just couldn't get it together on a map.
I had to force myself to do some routine exercises at terrain for over a year before it started to look sort of worthwhile.

I thought I'd throw this in here. This was the best I could do with this map back in 2012.
It's a bit sad and uninspiring. I didn't even know how to do the coast lines thing with stroke at that point.

Thanks for sharing this. It's fascinating to me to see your process and how you develop your art.

My pleasure ChickPea.
I like trying to show people how things work or how I do them.
Also, to show that it all just starts with a sketch. Nothing special or fancy.
And ideas can come from all over the place.

[Humabout]

The entire map is striking, but what really does it for me is the simple choice to have the map bursting out of the boarder. I love that. So tastefully done, too. Thank you for sharing!

[snodsy]

Thanks for sharing, once again, your process and earlier version - gives us hope that our skills could develop into something worth actually looking at. Would rep you if I could, thanks again.

[J.Edward]

Finally, can you tell some more about the graticule in the maps of Qaliste? Is that a particular geographic projection?
Thanks again in advance for your kind replies.

I totally forgot to answer this Azure. Sorry about that.
It isn't a true graticule set. I was working fast and hadn't laid out the whole planet yet so I didn't have accurate info.
I just distorted a grid to give it the look of graticules. Obviously now that I am laying out the world, I'll have to go back and make changes to it.

The entire map is striking, but what really does it for me is the simple choice to have the map bursting out of the boarder. I love that. So tastefully done, too. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks Humabout. I love little things like that too. And asymmetry as well.

Thanks for sharing, once again, your process and earlier version - gives us hope that our skills could develop into something worth actually looking at. Would rep you if I could, thanks again.

Your skills are already there snodsy.
But yes, that was why I wanted to show that 2012 version. I knew so little back then.
There were so many things that I wanted to do with my maps but just didn't know how to do it.
The will to learn is a big part of improving I think. Even more so than skills, as skills can be learned.

[J.Edward]

After chatting with Max on the Olde Qalist thread I decided to do some edits of that version - see if I could get a better contrast without totally redoing the map.
I did an edited antique version with much more contrast - maybe too much - and a greyscale version - also maybe too much contrast.
I want to do a true black and white but that will be a total redo so it will have to wait a bit.