Antarctica

[Deadshade]

The most beautiful journey among hundreds I ever did was to Antarctica a few years ago.
One morning we have been caught on sea by a hurricane coming from the continent. The captain was a bit worried so he sought refuge and cover on the Deception Island.
It was full summer and I was thinking about how all this would look like in full winter. Probably very Deadly.
This challenge is an excellent opportunity to draw a map of the Deception Island - an idea I have been playing with for some time.

I think that I will go in a perspective 3D handdrawn style because it seems to suit correctly to the necessity to capture the stark contrast between the stone and the ice. Joining my first sketch attempting to show the idea I have in mind .
I also join a few real pictures.
Picture 1 - this is Antarctica when it looks friendly
Picture 2 - this is Antarctica when it looks angry (we approach the Deception Island in hurricane conditions)
Picture 3 - yours truly in safety on Deception Island

[Bogie]

Welcome to the challenge, good idea.

[ChickPea]

Wow, this is going to be epic!! Looking forward to seeing you develop it.

[AzurePlanet]

Welcome!
Yes indeed. Your choice to map an Antartic island is epic.

[Deadshade]

Unfortunately I had little time so did little progress.
Actually I basically only had time to do a few sketchs exploring the styles I would use and that would match my idea.
Finally I converged to this handdrawn semirealistic 3 D style. Any comments welcome.

Now I only hope I'll have the time to finish this for the deadline what is not sure at all ....

### LATEST WIP ###

[Chick]

Wow, I sure hope you finish those mountains, they are already awesome!!

[J.Edward]

I agree with Chick. They look awesome Deadshade.
That is really ambitious and cool.

[arsheesh]

Yup, those mountains are really something! I wonder though how well suited the sea texture fill is to the hand-drawn style of your mountains.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Bogie]

Likin' the mountains, the one on the right reminds me of the Rock of Gibraltar.

[Deadshade]

Yup, those mountains are really something! I wonder though how well suited the sea texture fill is to the hand-drawn style of your mountains.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

You are completely right and I had the same wondering.
As it is hard and long to hand draw the whole sea, I thought about a fractal texture but it also takes time to create one that looks like hand drawn sea at this scale. There was also the possibility to use a sea photograph and adapt it to the map scale but that looked like cheating to me.
Obviously the big problem being that a fully realistic solution on this scale would need a megaton of small details which are both different from each other and quasi regular in one direction (ripples, wrinkles, foam)
That's why I converged to this semi realistic embedding solution. I think that the color palette and the (fractal) shapes will do the job once when the whole island is done.
You have an idea about what would fit better and be feasible relatively fast ?

P.S
Ah I forgot to say one thing. I am doing all that with pencils and mouse only (have not a tablet) what explains that I can't go as fast and accurate as I would if I used a tablet.