May Entry: Shipwrecked

Ahoy, challenge entry off the starboard bow! Well, one that is foundering in heavy seas....

I know I don't have too long to put this together now but I was attempting to reduce old maps to fit and that really didn't work out too well. So, emboldened by Torq's beautifully detailed map I have decided that I'll have a shot at putting together a hand-drawn encounter map for this month's challenge in the style of my pirate cove map. I'll also try (really hard) to keep the filesize within limits. I forsee rough water ahead....

Here's the line sketch as a first draft:

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A ship, pirate or otherwise, has foundered on the rocks in a storm. The battered hull rests among the crashing waves. The party must save the treasure/girl/captives before the hulk sinks finally beneath the sea. However, dark creatures from the deep have different ideas - leading to swashbuckling combat on the storm tossed deck!

I agree, not much to look at right now, but I should get a few updates out over the next couple of days which should make it look more like an actual encounter map.

Man, I cant wait to find out how this turns out. If your last map is anything to go by it should be a cracker. It just so happens I'm looking to use the deck of a shipwrecked vessel as an encounter area in a game of Iron Heroes that I'm running, so I'l be snagging it when its done.

Torq

After seeing your other pirate map, I am very excited to see what you come up with here!

Okay, so some progress at last. Managed to steal some time while at a conference to move this on. Definitely going to be cutting it a bit fine.

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A little more progress.

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Thanks you for giving us a look into how you do this start-to-finish!

I like the Brigantine or Sloop size ship you have chosen for the wreck... (not sure if you are keeping two masts or droppings it to one)… anyway it is just the sort of smaller ship that might have had an inexperienced Captain at the helm... I like ship & sailing artwork but all too often it is the big and expensive "Galleons" that are on the rocks... (Less common but still did happen).

Keep the great art coming… it is a treat to see it form from the blank page.

-Chris

Thanks for the compliments. I needed it to be a smaller ship so that it would fit on the map without loosing too much detail! Any passing resemblance to a plan is entirely coincidental and bears no relation to any plan living or dead... :)

I've pretty much finished the line drawings now which gets me to here:

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Now a bit of colour added in:

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Choosing a winner...just got that much harder. :)

I love the sails trailing off into the depths...very spooky.

Is the drawing scanned in? If so can you recommend an entry level scanner for your fellow cartographers? Any other basic tips are most welcome in exploring your methods.

This is all done from scratch in Gimp with a Wacom Graphire4 tablet (I think they've been suplanted by the Banboo range now but should be cheap on ebay).

I do have a scanner that I use now and again and like a lot. It's a Canon and cost about £40 (~$80). I'm not at home so can't give you the exact details.

As for other tips, 'm keeeping a running log of screenshots so that I can write up the promised tutorial over on the other pages but as I am going to be cutting it tight to get this done on time, I'm certainly not going to get the tutorial written up before the deadline. However, any more questions - feel free to ask away!