May / June 2015 Lite Challenge: Flight to the Ford (LotR)

[ChickPea]

I wasn't going to take part in the month's challenge, knowing I'm pretty busy for the next few weeks and especially after bombing spectacularly last month! But what can I say, I'm addicted (what night does Mappers Anonymous meet?)

I'm not a gamer and don't have any experience with battle maps so, since Bogie says regional maps are OK, I'm going with that. I'm doing a scene from Lord of the Rings from the chapter 'Flight to the Ford', where Frodo & crew are on the road and they're caught by the black riders. Frodo runs for the river to cross into Rivendell and soon after, Elrond makes the river flood and washes away the ringwraiths. I hope this counts as an ambush! (maybe I should have put a spoiler alert on this paragraph LOL)

I haven't loads of time unfortunately, so I'm trying to get as much done as I can now. I've posted my first WIP below. The big rectangle will be Rivendell and I'll do something in Inkscape for that. I've put in a rough position for the road, coming from the left, but that's not finished. I've also started the forests but not sure I like them and might redo. According to the book, mountains rise up behind Rivendell, so I've tried to give the sense of mountains just starting at the edge of the map. Since I'm a bit rubbish at mountains, dunno if it works.

Anyway, this is where I'm at for now:

### Latest WIP ###

[JefBT]

Nice idea. I am thinking of a battlemap or a regional map, but I'll probably make a regional too.

[ChickPea]

Cool, looking forward to seeing what you do.

[DanielHasenbos]

Nice choice of ambush, as a Lord of the Rings fan I will be following this WIP
The suggestion of mountains starting behind Rivendell works to me.
Can't wait to see where you take this!

[Bogie]

Glad you decided to join in ChickPea, LoTR stuff is always a good choice.

[ChickPea]

Thanks, Bogie. I'm hoping to post another update soon. I did my first version of Rivendell but it sucked so I'm starting again.

[ChickPea]

Soooo ... I've changed my mind with what I'm doing with this map about 50 times, but no matter. In a fit of madness, I decided it would be cool to have Rivendell sitting on a cliff-top setting, as is implied in the movies (though not so much the books). Anyway, decided to give that a bash just to try something different. But now I'm stuck and in need of advice.

I've never drawn cliffs before and I don't think my perspective's right. I feel that the cliffs at the bottom of the image aren't too awful (I put a tick against them), but it's once they start to curve round the corner that I think I'm messing up. Or it might be that the bottom cliffs are actually the wrong ones and throwing everything else out?? I'm not sure what's best to do. I've attached a snippet which is very much a WIP (everything's a bit rough and river/roads will be rerouted/tweaked).

How does this look to others and any suggestions to improve? I haven't been especially careful with the line art since I have a feeling I'm going to be erasing most of it!

[JefBT]

I am not good with cliffs, but I think the top cliffs are too uniform...if you make them more "noisy", like the bottom ones, I think it will be better.

[ChickPea]

I've actually already deleted the very top cliff. I was getting discouraged by that point and thinking "This isn't working", and I wasn't really concentrating and made them too smooth, but they're gone now.

[J.Edward]

I think I know what the problem is, as I've encountered something similar.
Your bottom cliff that you like has a bit of perspective and that is leading the other cliffs to look/feel out of perspective, when in fact none of the cliffs should be in perspective as it's a top down map. I did a quick sketch annotation for you to see what I mean. I think that is what was throwing you off.

I hope that is helpful ChickPea. I think going for the cliffs with Rivendell is a good idea. It adds more to the scene. Keep at it.