Unnamed 1900s topographic map

[mbartelsm]

This is mostly a practice map for me to attempt a different style, something more 'historical'.



The map is heavily inspired and based on THIS map.

Right now, I'm in the midst of labeling the different locations, the map will show some important settlements and forts as well as roads, but not too many as it's not meant to be a road map (unlike the referent). I'm thinking on adding some political divisions but I'm not sure yet as it might get a bit too crowded.

[Lingon]

I love that style and it's not very common in fantasy maps, so thumbs up for trying it I think you're doing a great job on it too, I like the soft shadows you added to the mountains, it gives them some clarity that the original maps of the style often lacks. Interesting landmass and nice subtle color choices.

To give it a more historical feel, I'd suggest a very soft paper texture (not really grungy or burnt etc, just something light to suggest that it's drawn on a physical material) and a slight fuzziness and unevenness to the lines, which are just a little too clean for the period.

[whump]

Very nice! Can I ask how you've achieved the coastline, rivers and contours? Program, technique? I had a go at a 20th century topographical style recently and ended up drawing everything, which was fun but very time consuming (here). The style was mid-20th century rather than early as yours is. I really love this style of map!

I would say that if you are aiming for a very faithful reproduction of your inspiration-map's style then the shaded relief is perhaps a bit out of place. BUT... that said, it does look great - it's very subtle and brings out the mountains very well. So I suppose it depends on what you are aiming for with the map. Will be good to see what you do next.

[mbartelsm]

@Lingon: Yeah, I've been postponing adding a texture until the end, for now I want to work on a clean map. As for the lines I'll try to change them a bit and see what I can come up with.

@Whump: I made a rough heightmap on photoshop and refined it a bit on wilbur, wilbur gives you the option to output a contour shader which can be pretty useful (just make sure the you scale the map to be bigger than the working product as the lines have no anti aliasing), I also used wilbur to make the shaded relief, all the rest is hand drawn. For the coastline I made a composite image with pictures of smoke and worked on it until I was satisfied, it's the first time I've done that but I think it worked out pretty great.

[Ilanthar]

Great start mbartelsm! I'm looking forward for the next steps!

[mbartelsm]

Update.

I re-did the mountains because I wasn't satisfied with them, they were too smooth and unnatural. I added textures to the different inks except for the labels and the grid which are not done yet. And I'm starting to add lakes (the black shapes)



EDIT: It seems I forgot to fix a few rivers after I changed the mountains, I'll fix that soon^TM

[Ilanthar]

Nice improvement on the mountains indeed!

[- Max -]

Great start and very nice style.

[mbartelsm]

Update.

So I've been playing around with adding forests but I'm not too convinced, does anyone have some advice or comments regarding them?



EDIT: And a quick update on the labels for rivers

[MstrWelf]

Very impressive so far. I definitely love the relief and the shading of the mountains. I'm not quite sure about the forest, maybe leave it completely or turn down the opacity, have you thought of symbols? Might be a matter of looking at the different maps side by side. Very interested what you come up with and I like the labeling of the rivers!