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Thread: Hand-drawn WIP: Braid

  1. #1

    Wip Hand-drawn WIP: Braid

    I'm starting a quick little project: a village centered in and around a braided river. I'm doing this by hand with pens, and will color it in pencil.

    On the actual piece, so far I have nothing but a border and a title!
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    ...but I will also share my initial attempt to scratch this out, which should give some idea of the style I'm going for. (You can see that I already changed the name.)
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    The idea is to have some more cartoony representations of forests, buildings, bridges, etc all around and in the braided river bed, right near where the river flows out into a larger body of water. That sketch river bed is, I think, too symmetric, so I'll be paying close attention to aerial photos of braided rivers. (Some of the best references for what I want, so far, seem to be the Platte River in Nebraska.) I will probably also plop a small delta at the outflow.

    Clearly, I am also studying how to draw cartoony buildings on pylons. I was trying to play with a very oblique angle and exaggerate the perspective, as well as doing some attempts to make the roof more bowed, but I think that was probably biting off more than I should have. The uppermost building seems like the best idea so far.

    I'm also trying new forest styles; in particular, I am doing something that I think will allow me to differentiate deeper forests and jungles by adding under- and over-growth.

    Finally, I promise to post more! Really!

  2. #2
    Guild Expert Guild Supporter Greg's Avatar
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    I always seem to like your work jshoer! You always seem to try new things and experiment, which I want to do more (though to be fair I've only just started).

    I definitely agree with you about the nailing that perspective because looking at the moment, it seems a little varying which certainly gives it an interesting style (though as you say, this is just experimentation). It's good you've chosen a house you like to work from and I look forward to seeing this develop as with all your pieces!

  3. #3

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    I do like experimenting! My feeling is that the more I can add to my repertoire, the more I can draw from later.

    I think maybe perspective is going to be a challenge here. I'm thinking about whether I should add more perspective to the forest to fit better with the buildings, or tone down the perspective on the latter. I'm going to keep playing with ideas.

  4. #4
    Guild Expert Guild Supporter Greg's Avatar
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    Yeah, keep it fluid for now and see where it takes you!
    Experimenting is always great fun and totally agree about adding to your skills and repertoire!

  5. #5

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    Here's where my experiments are going now:
    1. I've reworked the forest a little (especially the treetops, but also to make the contours of the canopy match up with where I placed the trunks).
    2. I have basically abandoned the idea of exaggerated perspective on buildings. That was just too much at once, and it didn't match up with the forest. Still working a bit on their style.
    3. I tried building up the river in a new way: instead of drawing a wide, meandering river and putting islands in it to create the braid, I took a pencil and interwove three or four meandering river courses, then filled in all the outlines with my pen. I like this much better. I may need to tweak some island shapes, but I think this comes pretty close to what I want. What do you think?
    4. I am playing with hatching to give depth to the braid islands. I tried three different styles on this river (bottom: small, quick hatching; center: regularly spaced, wide hatching; top: hatching on the far side of the islands). I think I like the middle one best...thoughts?

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  6. #6

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    Here is the final river form. The little rectangles are planks laid across as small bridges. Breaks in the line indicate where full-sized bridges will appear.
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  7. #7
    Administrator ChickPea's Avatar
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    This is looking really cool! My initial thought after a half second glance was 'celtic knot' so you've definitely pulled off the 'braid' aspect. Looking forward to seeing you fill out the other areas.
    "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"

  8. #8
    Guild Expert Guild Supporter Greg's Avatar
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    Sorry jshoer I missed your update. I think you've definitely made a great choice with your river, making it unique, pretty and also living up to the title.

    I agree that that with the buildings it would be hard to make it fit in with a forest of that style, but hey that's what experimenting is for. Look forwards to seeing more of this! I also agree on the centre shading choice for the islands, though the bottom one with the quick strokes is also nice.

  9. #9

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    Thanks for the comments - right now I am thinking of going with the usual isometric view of the buildings; that should be okay with the forest style.

    ChickPea, I'm glad your thought went in the direction I was trying to suggest! How do you think the river looks realism-wise?

  10. #10
    Guild Expert Guild Supporter Greg's Avatar
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    The one in your experiments looks more realistic at the moment, but that's in part because you've got the island shading and the final one has bridge gaps. I assume the river shape you were after in your final one is where an oxbow lake is starting to form. Either way, I think it finds itself inbetween realism and stylistic at a place where it happily balances both at the same time.

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