Furrville (Isometric city. Ink on paper. Commissioned)

[thegreentick]

I was asked to do this map based on a few suggestions for an author who will be using this in a work he hopes to publish. I was almost finished the inking before I found this website so I can't take any suggestions for changes on this initial stage, but I was hoping for some suggestions on any software that is cheap/free that would be good for adding a watercolor effect to it. I would hate to ruin the original with a painting mistake.

Since I'm new here, any tips for improving my style would be welcome. I aim to improve.

*edit* I feel that I ought to give public credit to J.Edward for inspiring the border that I created for this map. His map "Bourmout" was the main inspiration for it.

[tilt]

lovely map - lots of details there .. personally I use photoshop, but a free alternative is Gimp which a lot of people on here use

[Freodin]

I think your style is just fantastic. If there is room for improvement, it is only in some little areas. Personally, I think that you were a little... well... sloppy... with the shading of the cliffs at the outmost left and especially the right bolders. The hatching is not up to par with the rest of your linework.

But the map overall... let's just say it is fine that I don't have the original in front of me. It wouldn't be nice to get drool all over it.

[ChickPea]

This is an incredible piece of art. Great job!

I'd suggest GIMP for your watercolour effect. It's quite a learning curve if you've never used it before, but I'm sure if you google around there will some tutorials that do what you want to do. I hope you'll update us as you work on it.

[Ilanthar]

Awesome! I'm looking forward to see what you'll add (colors?) to this beautiful map.

[thegreentick]

If there is room for improvement, it is only in some little areas. Personally, I think that you were a little... well... sloppy... with the shading of the cliffs at the outmost left and especially the right bolders. The hatching is not up to par with the rest of your linework.

Right you are. I had intended for those hills to kind of fade into the background with little to no detail on them. The shading ended up looking sloppy, unfortunately. I'm hoping that some creative use of color will mitigate most of the damage. :S

Thank you to everyone for your compliments of my work and for the software recommendation. I'll try it out and give updates when I can. Unfortunately, those updates will likely be sporadic as I have to juggle artistic endeavors with a family and a business.

Cheers!

[arsheesh]

Wow, this is quite nice thegreentick! Very impressed. So to your initial question, GIMP is indeed a great alternative to PS, and is definitely worth having in your tool-box. However, for what you are looking for, I think a paint program would actually be the better choice. There are two wonderful free paint programs out there. Mypaint is a good beginner program that, from what I'm told, is easy to learn and quite user friendly. Many people swear by it. Krita is a more powerful paint program with a whole lot more options. The downside is that the learning curb is a bit steeper.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Chick]

This is a really amazing piece of drawing, but there is one thing that keeps poking at me. On the left, you have a small lake at the base of the cliff, and an outlet stream that flows into a larger river, which in turn flows NNE to the sea. At least that's what it looks like to me.

However, the lake is at a low elevation compared to the river, and to the sea, or so it appears to me. I've looked and looked, trying to get the perspective to look like the water is flowing downhill, and I can't. Even with the city sloping down to the sea, the size of the buildings and the slopes of the cliffs where the city is, all make it look very clearly like the water is flowing uphill to the sea.

[thegreentick]

This is a really amazing piece of drawing, but there is one thing that keeps poking at me. On the left, you have a small lake at the base of the cliff, and an outlet stream that flows into a larger river, which in turn flows NNE to the sea. At least that's what it looks like to me.

However, the lake is at a low elevation compared to the river, and to the sea, or so it appears to me. I've looked and looked, trying to get the perspective to look like the water is flowing downhill, and I can't. Even with the city sloping down to the sea, the size of the buildings and the slopes of the cliffs where the city is, all make it look very clearly like the water is flowing uphill to the sea.

Huh... I'm not seeing it. Maybe if I tried explaining the land how I see it...

The farm land and the land around the lake is all flood plain. The river is currently at normal level but every spring it floods, so the lake is pretty much exactly at river level. The river then flows through a gap between a small plateau and a large one into the sea. The plateau rises as you get closer to the bay. Does that make any sense or is the water still flowing uphill for you?

...or maybe the water is only flowing downhill for me. I'd be interested to hear if others are seeing the same thing.

btw: thanks for the tip on those painting programs arsheesh. Those sound like what I'm looking for.

[J.Edward]

Hey Greentick - this is awesome.
I'm glad Bourmout inspired you. That's always cool to hear.
This piece is beautiful. It's hard to say what is my favorite part. So much good stuff in there.
Love the compass too. The scrolling and lettering is very pleasing as well.
The fields are splendid as is the island chain with its little bridges.
The whole piece is a delight. This is definitely one I will watch.

I can tell you from experience that doing this in color is going to be a monster. There are so many little things to paint in.
When you get to that point I'll offer any advice I can if you want it. Again, beautiful work Greentick and true dedication.