Erena -- Commission

[Wired]

My most recent commissioned piece. I wish I could have added more labels and cities et. al., but this was all the client wanted.



As far as the art itself goes this is the one I'm probably the most happy with as I believe I've finally arrived at a style that is my own and which I'm comfortable with, especially with regards to the forests. Not saying that there's no room for improvement (there certainly is still plenty of that), but I like the general direction I've taken. Much of my prior work emulated facets of Torstan's (the forests, primarily: his 'chickenscratch' style looks great when he does it, but it's just a pain for my wrists when I try it) and Max's styles (oceans and coast lines: his general work is great anyways, but I tried to emulate these facets and always came up short), and while they say that copying is the best form of flattery - and learning from people who are as excellent in their craft as these two and many others here that I look up to - I always feel better when I use what I've learned to make something that's got my own touch, even if it's just a variation.

So, take this as a most sincere "Thank you!" to all of you who put their art out there and allow me to learn from it.

[ChickPea]

Very nice! And I applaud the sentiment about studying the work of others and learning and developing your own style. I'm not there yet, but maybe one day.

Tried to rep you but I can't. Sorry bout that.

[Wired]

Very nice! And I applaud the sentiment about studying the work of others and learning and developing your own style. I'm not there yet, but maybe one day.

Tried to rep you but I can't. Sorry bout that.

It's the sentiment that counts. Thank you.

[Domino44]

This is a wonderful map, I think your style choices are really nice and it has a really nice look overall. I'm not sure about the coniferous forests, they seem a little out of place. I don't know if thats what the commissioner specifically wanted but I think they would have looked better if the trees where smaller and not just black I think they could use some gray contrast.

[Wired]

This is a wonderful map, I think your style choices are really nice and it has a really nice look overall. I'm not sure about the coniferous forests, they seem a little out of place. I don't know if thats what the commissioner specifically wanted but I think they would have looked better if the trees where smaller and not just black I think they could use some gray contrast.

They do actually have a bit more contrast on the full resolution.

[- Max -]

Pretty nice Wired though I agree with Domino. The conifers forests are jarring a bit with deciduous ones and appears like big black chuncks on the map where nothing else is that black. Maybe try to draw outlines of conifers only to match the other forests styles? Also you have some tree overlap that you might want to get rid of on deciduous forests, it kind of attract eyes there

[Wired]

Pretty nice Wired though I agree with Domino. The conifers forests are jarring a bit with deciduous ones and appears like big black chuncks on the map where nothing else is that black. Maybe try to draw outlines of conifers only to match the other forests styles? Also you have some tree overlap that you might want to get rid of on deciduous forests, it kind of attract eyes there

Max, do you think this modified brush works better? Mind, I don't care about the coniferous trees overlapping as to me this gives the impression of a dense and dark forest, but this new brush isn't quite as oppressively black as the one I used in the map.

[- Max -]

It's better but it seems that the line thickness is still too heavy comparing to your deciduous forests. I would draw them (or make brushes if prefer use them) at the same line thickness for the sake of consistency. My personal opinion is that overlapping don't really looks like dense forests but looks well...overlapping

[Wired]

It's better but it seems that the line thickness is still too heavy comparing to your deciduous forests. I would draw them (or make brushes if prefer use them) at the same line thickness for the sake of consistency. My personal opinion is that overlapping don't really looks like dense forests but looks well...overlapping

I respect you input as a professional on this, but my fear is that if I make them any thinner and brighter it'll become a lot harder to distinguish them from the deciduous trees I use. I suppose one viable work-around might be to do the coniferous forests in the same way I do the deciduous one, which is by using several different brushes (one for the forest outline, one for the tree tops in the center and the back, etc.) rather than just the one I use now. That might be a solution to avoid too much overlapping while still keeping a good deal of variation in size and shape.

... see, that's why I love you people: you always have some constructive input to get me thinking again.

[- Max -]

Hehe In my opinion, the problem with relying on brushes is that it's hard to stay consistent with them if you don't draw them altogether for a specific map and they come with a lot of cons ( overlapping, repeatiting patterns, blurry scale up or down). Hence I think that drawing directly on map is way more comfortable and somehow faster than using brushes. But that's just a personal taste