The Wheel of Time

[Dimension Door]

I love epic fantasy. Years ago I was introduced to the Wheel of Time when the books still came out. I never got so far as reading them though.. There were too many books..! But last year I took a deep breath and dove into the world Robert Jordan created. It was a bumpy ride. I got so mad at the characters sometimes that I forgot to realize what a beautiful and intricate world the books created on the pages. But I managed to plow through the 14 books and got rewarded in the end when Brandon Sanderson took over. In hindsight it was amazing. And now the Wheel of Time has arrived on screen!

So I wanted to take some time off commissions and make a map of the Westlands. I hoped to finish it in a month but that.. is not going to happen.. The world is so big..! And I keep on adding stuff that was omitted in the original maps. Since I might be on this for a while I might as well start a WIP.

First, the sketch and labels! I love to start with the labels after the sketch because they are a real pain to put in after drawing the landscape. So now I cheat and work around them.. Anyone else do that? I have worked a long time on the border.. but I am still not happy with the sketch so it might turn out totally different! In the border I want magic, the weave, the wheel, the Aes Sedai, icons for all the major characters and sigils of nations… Way too much information for a border but I didn’t know what to cut so I started the map. We’ll see where we end up.



It took me a long time working with different brushes and styles to find something I liked. For the mountain style I am heavily leaning on mr Sir Inkman, John Stevenson for he has the best mountains ever. John.. I hope you don’t mind me adopting this. The city icons mostly are inspired by the Hogenberg and Braum maps. I’m still fidgeting with color and shade but made a start.



So here is my latest WIP! It is a screenshot as there is not much to see beyond this. It is just the lining and it is taking forever. I’m still enjoying it but oh.. so many labels, rivers, towns, cities.. I’ve never done a map on this scale before..! I hope this does not become a nemesis..

### Latest WIP ###


Edit: feel free to give advice or critique! Since I’m not working for a commissioner it is easy to get a blind spot for mistakes/dubious choices.

[Naima]

Very nice, what techniuqe are you using to color it?

[XCali]

Awesome! Very commendable undertaking. I wish you good speed on the adventure.

[Adfor]

Keep on keepin' on, it's beautiful so far!

IR

[Dimension Door]

Very nice, what techniuqe are you using to color it?

Hey Naima! I saw you asked that also on the Verdant Isles map. I’ll try to explain my process. I use procreate and have the following layers (First one being on the top and the last one on the bottom)

Highlights (Add)
Shading details (Hard Light)
Sepia Texture (Multiply opacity around 40%)
Linework (Normal)
Shading (Hard Light)
Color Illustrations (Normal)
Color Land (Normal)
Color Water (Normal)

This is my palette. It mainly uses warm yellows. The forest color will be changed to something darker but I didn’t get to that stage yet.



I hope this helps!

Oh, I made an animated gif of the different layers. Let’s see if this works



yes! Well, this is as thorough as I can be 😅

Awesome! Very commendable undertaking. I wish you good speed on the adventure.

Thank you! I will try to find as many adventures as possible

Keep on keepin' on, it's beautiful so far!

IR

Yes! Thanks for the heads up, I will get there!

[Naima]

Hey Naima! I saw you asked that also on the Verdant Isles map. I’ll try to explain my process. I use procreate and have the following layers (First one being on the top and the last one on the bottom)

Highlights (Add)
Shading details (Hard Light)
Sepia Texture (Multiply opacity around 40%)
Linework (Normal)
Shading (Hard Light)
Color Illustrations (Normal)
Color Land (Normal)
Color Water (Normal)

This is my palette. It mainly uses warm yellows. The forest color will be changed to something darker but I didn’t get to that stage yet.



I hope this helps!

Oh, I made an animated gif of the different layers. Let’s see if this works



yes! Well, this is as thorough as I can be ��



Thank you! I will try to find as many adventures as possible



Yes! Thanks for the heads up, I will get there!

O wow , thankyou , I thought u did in paper and pencils , it looks very good thankyou for the explanation .

[bleedscarlet]

Beautiful map, I have no critiques but I'm excited to see the final version!!

[Neyasha]

Thanks so much for showing your process in Procreate! I tend to use the same workflow digitally as I would with traditional painting and always forget to use layers and different layer settings to my advantage. Seeing how others work with layers helps a lot!

The map looks amazing! Although the colouring looks beautiful I really like the linework alone as well.

[Diamond]

This is fantastic and is already light years ahead of any other WoT maps I've seen. It's gonna be a thing of beauty when finished - heck, it already is.

[Eilathen]

Woahhh...that's one awesome map-style* you have there. Love it! I mean the b/w one is already quite beautiful, to be honest....but the color-version...wow! As a fan of the world of the WoT, I approve! (and I mean fan of the books and the world "painted" in there...the amazon series, not so much)

* reminds me a lot of JEdwards' signature style, which of course is to say it's artistic and just all around awesome