Horn of Albia - WIP / Advice

[Noenoer]

WIP 13 may 2023





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Hello everyone,

Lore
(I'm writing my world in Dutch, so forgive some of the weird translations )

The Horn of Albia, vassal to the Empire, used to be connected to the mainland. But the King of Albia wanted to become independent and decided to rebel. Knowing he couldn't win in a conventional war, he turned to magic to defeat his foes. When the armies of the Empire reached the borders of his kingdom the King managed to break off the Horn and drift it away from the mainland. Thousands drowned, and not only armies of the Empire were lost but high-ranking lords and ladies as well. The Empire decided to postpone its reconquest of Albia, for now...

But while the King of Albia wanted independence, the duchies in the North and South-East of the kingdom didn't. Supported by the Empire, they declare civil war on the king. Meanwhile the forest nymphs, who had been displaced by the kingdom's expansion, saw the opportunity to reclaim their land and began to push back against human settlements. But they also see the Great Drift as a crime against nature, which they will try to restore.

The island nation north-east of the Albian Isles (not pictured on the map) worries about its new neighbor, and might consider joining the conflict as well.

Map planning



Using Clip Studio for this one.

Obviously, this map and background is inspired by the British Isles and Ireland. I've used the shapes and height formations from the real islands and mixed them. On top of that, I've added a Lonely Mountain (tm) in the west, and I'm still researching for other ideas from the region (and do see this as an invite to propose some!).
The coast to the West is the region that used to be connected to the mainland, and so the coast there will be huge cliffs sticking out of the ocean (which is also a reference to the White Cliffs of Dover). The mainland (west, south-west) isn't on the map, might add a silhouette later.

The channel between the main land and the islands will be a huge mess of rocks and rubble.

The main island is split into two by the mountain range running north to south. The eastern region will be slightly wetter than the western part, and have more forests and greenery. Meanwhile the west is more about greenish plains and rolling hills. The north is slightly colder than the south. The colors of the map will be adjusted to acknowledge these differences later.

Goals of this map
Limiting the use of outlines. While linework can look beautiful, I would really like to create maps which doesn't use/uses less outlines and the like in the finished product.

Limiting the use of layers. Most of the map right now is on one layer (excluding the border). I've noticed that I've used a ridiculous amount of layers in my previous project and I want to move to a more painterly look which doesn't include that.

Differences in height. Most of my previous map looked like flat terrain with huge spikes sticking out. I want to be able to better represent higher terrains like plateaus and hills.

Advice
Any advice concerning the below described topics is greatly appreciated

• Ideas on landforms to include in this map, inspired by the British Isles and Ireland.
• Advice on how to paint forests in this style.
• Advice on how to improve this style.

Anyways, thanks for reading. I hope to update soon but I'm a slow painter .

[Chashio]

Nice looking project I always love seeing others doing more painterly maps - they're my favorite style, but more of mine are panoramic than top down or isometric. Another memorable painterly cartographer here goes by Viking, you can check out their work for some inspiration... this is one of my favorites: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...619#post224619

For improving a painterly style, I like to study actual paintings (of landscapes mostly but that's not the only thing that can help) and do studies of terrain based on aerial photos, videos and maps (like Google Earth satellite and 3d views). I would also recommend doing all of that as well for painting forests in particular...as to a specific forest style I don't have a recommendation; I'd just try stuff until I found something I liked for it.

Have fun

[Tiana]

My painterly work involves many layers. I would still advise breaking it down into ocean / land / decor if nothing else. Layers are good. Layers are your friend in all styles. XD

Good luck with the map though. Painting a map is a time-consuming task!