Here is the latest progress on the ink work:
### Latest WIP ###
My process for these isometric maps is getting more refined and repeatable.
Step 0: starting with the side-on photograph (optional step, required by this contest)
Step 1: layout a top-down view of the scene based on project requirements. Make sure to put in elevation lines.
Step 2: squish the vertical by a certain percentage while keeping the horizontal at 100% (going into isometric view)
Step 3: separate out the elevation levels by moving them up or down, depending on where they should go
Step 4: begin to sketch over the outline, looking for opportunities for better lines of sight and locations of interest (I don't want any important areas to be occluded by terrain)
Step 5: once sketch is feeling good, take a copy and extend the vertical by the reciprocal of the previous percentage, keeping horizontal the same
Step 6: cut the various elevation levels out, eliminating all vertical sketch info so that all that remains is the flat horizontal regions again (now having been modified by the isometric sketching)
Step 7: rack the elevation levels together, lining them up so that everything makes sense again from overhead
[ This is where I am now. See sketch below ]
Step 8: from this new top-down view, layout the town/buildings/features in a quick and straightforward way
Step 9: take the building information and squish it in the vertical, same percentage as before. This brings the building outlines into isometric perspective
Step 10: lay the building foundations back into the main isometric sketch and start drawing the buildings in, now that there's confidence from the overhead view that they are arranged sensibly
Step 11: add color, shadows, highlights
Step 12: ???
Step 13: Profit!
See below the new, revised overhead view of the scene, created by re-flattening the isometric sketch above and then arranging the flat areas properly relative to each other.
Oh! And finally, by adding in the rope bridge I have made a more interesting path for the adventurers (or any attackers) to follow on their way to the town, as well as creating a plausible vantage point from which the original photograph that started this whole project could have been taken.
