[WIP] Tarkir

[Abu Lafia]

That's… huge Looks brilliant from what I could see, unfortunately it's so big it won't load properly for me. Maybe resize to something like 33%? Viewing size should never be even close to work size anyway

Thank you Lingon, as i admire your work, i'd love to hear what you think, so i uploaded a smaller (though more pixellated) version. It's "only" ~ 5x3,5 k px now

It's looking fantastic, Abu. What size is the original, just out of interest (can't remember if you said earlier in the thread)?

Thanks a lot ChickPea! The original is ~10x7 k px

That will be very good. Shading will work, we have seen that and your lines are clean and sweet. Keep up!

Glad you like it so far Troedel! Much appreciated!

This is looking awesome already, and you haven't even begun shading! There are some outright weird land shapes on that map, and they look very intriguing. Can't wait to see where this goes!
If I could give one minor remark (but I'm sure it's a matter of personal taste), maybe the parchment texture is a bit "strong", if you catch my meaning. Shading will probably alleviate that completely, but at the moment your linework seems to be overshadowed somewhat by the darker patches in your background. But like I said, just a minor point, and one that's purely personal AND will probably be fixed anyhow

Thanks Caenwyr! Glad you took the risk looking at those weird shapes You are totally right, the parchment texture's contrasts were pretty strong and indeed overshadowed the linework too much. I reworked the parchment to be more uniform in color (and a bit less desaturated) and added one layer of texture to it.

I'm so glad to see you back Abu! In particular with this fantastic project !
The new additions are great. I kinda agree with Caenwyr concerning the paper texture, but I guess it won't necessarily be a problem, depending of how you'll add the other layers (shading, colors...). And it's a cool paper texture btw.

Hey Ilanthar, yeah i'm also glad to be back at mapping and in touch with this wonderful community. I really missed some wonderful works uploaded and discussed the last weeks (i see you're pretty productive again - or better still!) and i for sure have to take a closer look at what happened around here.


Here is the next upload with the reworked Parchment background. I think it's less irritating now.


Here is an upload in original size of the part i worked on yesterday: The southern mountains of the Jeskai Territory with the last of the 4 important Strongholds. The description from the "Planeswalker's Guide to Tarkir from the MtG Website (see below) sounded really cool, but i somewhat avoided drawing it before, as i thought it might not be the easiest task. In the end i was rather happy with the result, given i still have so much to learn regarding drawing things the way i want them to look.
"Cori Mountain Stronghold: This massive stronghold is constructed inside an ancient flooded caldera. An immense and well-preserved dragon skeleton surrounds the stronghold like a perimeter fence.
The symbol of the stronghold is a dragon, and its martial-arts tradition is based around the movements of a dragon. It's rumored that the soul of a dragon is contained in a mystical vessel buried deep beneath Cori Mountain."
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles...t-1-2014-09-03



Cheers,
AL

[arsheesh]

The mountains look lovely!

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[igoroh]

The mountains are amazing! The parchment bothered me too. It looks too cloudy, it's like a land eaten by mist, but it can only get better from there. With adding more layers of color and more elements it'll improve a lot.

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[Lingon]

Thank you Lingon, as i admire your work, i'd love to hear what you think, so i uploaded a smaller (though more pixellated) version. It's "only" ~ 5x3,5 k px now

Hey, thanks That's more manageable for my browser, haha, appreciate it! And it looks fantastic. Love the quirky mountains, though I think they would stand out better if the more normal mountains were not quite so tall and steep. It's very well painted either way though. Will follow this

[Ilanthar]

I like this dragon mountain, very well done!

[Chris Lewis]

AL, you have SOsososo many beautiful little nuances on your map that I notice every time I look at it - the details and the linework on your mountains, the dragon remnants atop the mountain in your second image, the villages and strongholds, etc. And the parchment background you used is excellent! Love seeing all the work as you progress with this.

[Abu Lafia]

Thank you Chris, Thomrey also asked me lately about the status of it, but every time i get back to it, i only see the incoherences and flaws and what i'd make different now. I like many things of it and with some of them i even fell in love , but the whole piece (so far) is way too fragmented in my view. I learned so much during the rather long process and usually tried to apply it directly on the map, without thinking too much about the coherence of the whole picture. The last time i worked on it was in last september when i felt the need to rework parts of the newest and somewhat rushed mountains in the bottom left quarter along the river. I liked the result at first, but then i felt, i'd have to continue to rework the mountains next to them too, since they wouldn't fit anymore, and then the next ones ... and in the end i'd need to redo the whole thing. So i sidetracked the project.
I'll upload the latest version nonetheless (for science! ). Should i happen to come back to it one day, it'll be to do it anew from scratch.

[ThomasR]

I can totally relate, I'm reluctant to go back to the first project that brought me here as I think I'd redo much of it.

Just know this. One of your beasts with this map was the forests. I think your latest piece shows a forest that would have been amazing on this map. Sur, it would have brought excruciating pain to your hand and total madness to your mind but it would have been worth it

[jfrazierjr]

Thank you Chris, Thomrey also asked me lately about the status of it, but every time i get back to it, i only see the incoherences and flaws and what i'd make different now. I like many things of it and with some of them i even fell in love , but the whole piece (so far) is way too fragmented in my view. I learned so much during the rather long process and usually tried to apply it directly on the map, without thinking too much about the coherence of the whole picture. The last time i worked on it was in last september when i felt the need to rework parts of the newest and somewhat rushed mountains in the bottom left quarter along the river. I liked the result at first, but then i felt, i'd have to continue to rework the mountains next to them too, since they wouldn't fit anymore, and then the next ones ... and in the end i'd need to redo the whole thing. So i sidetracked the project.
I'll upload the latest version nonetheless (for science! ). Should i happen to come back to it one day, it'll be to do it anew from scratch.

No.. please finish it... Looks like a good start.

[Ilanthar]

Well, you could also completely restart it (or redo what you want to improve) . I get tired of my own maps... for a time. Then I tend to redo them .
It was a very promising setting and I like a lot what you had so far...