Beneath Kekise

[Coreyartus]

My first all-on-my-own map, from beginning to end. Went through some permutations, but I think this is going to be it. Has a stamp from the royal archives, and a wax-ish arcane seal, as well as an official archivist Compass Rose. Ancient map, newly discovered, then forgotten again.

It's just waiting to be populated somehow...

I thought I might put notations on it from the thief who stole it originally, but they just muddied things up. I like not knowing how it ended up in some royal archive somewhere, and I imagine it meant little to Archivist Grinin Fiver (whoever that might be). It was just another thing to catalog from somewhere beneath Kekise (wherever that is...) The stains, water marks, mug rings---they all add to the history of the map itself, I feel.

Because the caves are pretty big, I think this probably needs to be someplace deep, probably coming from some excavated spaces and leading to an even deeper locale--perhaps beyond the water's depths? A hidden grotto, underneath and beyond?

In my head, this could be used as a battle map as well. For players, knowing only the room's outline but not what's actually in the rooms could be a lot of fun. No stairs, no marked entry, no exit...

Completely done in Photoshop, from the original rough sketch to the finished image. I've only ever adapted maps from other source material before, so drawing my own organic cave was fun. This is actually the very first map I've ever done completely on my own, and the very first completed map since I joined this forum a couple days ago. Took about 7 hours total, but a lot of that was thinking and pondering and backtracking... I acquired a lot of new brushes, textures, and patterns for this one. But they'll be well-used in the future.

I work as a professional costume designer and teach at a university, so this particular endeavor is a real hoot for me. I think I can say I'm addicted. It's very zen in some ways. I have some experience working with Photoshop as part of my job, but I can tell that fantasy cartography is going to be really REALLY hard to not indulge in all the time... hehe... Really, this whole process is deeply, personally satisfying. I'm going to do more, for sure!!

[AlBQuirky]

Great looking map! I like your "feel" of the work. The seal is a great touch

[snodsy]

Nice map and idea, like the open endedness of your map. I started doing maps from the tutorials here to learn photoshop, and now I get up each morning and do maps! zen like Great map.

[Jayharchitect]

Great stuff. Legible, check. Useful, check. Beautiful, better believe it check.