Upstairs Wizard Tower

[saria]

Hey there,

Posting my WIP on this Wizard tower. I'm honestly struggling with this one, it's now about 9 days since I started mapping and I learnt the underground ones fairly well, but can't seem to find a good style for upstairs/outside. Ah well, I'll keep trying but figured I'd start my WIP for this one. Only thing I'm happy with is I made the background paper/page myself. The rest... eh.

[Larb]

The style seems fine to me - you can easily tell one is ground level the other not.

[arsheesh]

Yup, looks like a fine start to me as well. Perhaps the issue is just that this is the early stage of the map? I know sometimes I don't know how I feel about a piece until I start in with the fine grained details. On that note, if you are interested Torstan has a wonderful pdf resource of a bunch of his quick hand drawn tutorials here. In particular, his tutorial on drawing grass (pg. 51), coloring dungeons (pg. 36) and coloring water in battlemaps (pg. 65) may be of use to you.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[saria]

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! I have been voraciously reading EVERYTHING, with over 9000 tabs open, and watching every tutorial, and just soaking everything in and just felt a little overwhelmed with just how much information there is out there and how much I have to learn So don't mind me

Of course my early maps aren't going to be works of art, this is only my third map battlemap! I need to keep remembering that

Anyway, figured I'd post a VERY ROUGH draft of the next phase. I'll post some more when I get a little further. The sketch is very much in its infancy, not even sure I can really do it (I don't have a tablet, just a mouse!), but we'll see

[arsheesh]

Hey, that's pretty good line-work for a mouse! Don't be discouraged, you are off to a great start already. As with anything else in life, the more you practice map-making the better you will become. By way of example I was just comparing an early version of a town map I made of an important locale in my campaign back in 2006 with a version of it I just completed last week. Admittedly I spent a heap more time on the latter map, but the point is just that with practice you will see marked improvement in your own work. In the mean time, enjoy the ride

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[saria]

Latest WIP: Now with an actual attempt at stairs for the second part of the tower. For context: This is supposed to look like the top tower is broken such that light is streaming through one side, hence the shadows and also the curved shadows on the stairs.

Any thoughts on how this looks would be awesome... !



Edit: For a question - given I'm going for a paper-ish look, should I be just dropping the shadows and keeping it simple? I don't know. Still working out the right style.

[J.Edward]

It would be easier to go without shadow and have it look more like it was drawn onto the paper.
It's much harder to do that with shadows.
It looks good either way. Don't get discouraged.
Do you intend to draw in the 'broken' wall area?
I know that would be tough with just a mouse though.

If so, maybe I can show you a few things tomorrow.
Keep at it saria.

[J.Edward]

UGH... I just tried to do a few things to show you, but I tried to just draw with my mouse and not the pen.
I forgot just how hard that is. You should get a cheap graphics tablet... it makes everything sooo much easier.
I saw your comment on Larb's Forlorn Tower... I think Larb would tell you the same.
So much more is possible with a tablet.

I think Larb uses a Wacom Bamboo, which is a cool wireless graphics tablet. $79 on Amazon.

[saria]

Speak of the devil, guess what just arrived My new tablet. I'm sitting down to try it out right now!! I'm rather excited!

And thank, J. You're awesome! Really appreciate your feedback. You guys on here are amazing, so glad I joined this community.

Also - if you want to try that thing now to show me, I can learn with the tablet

[J.Edward]

That is awesome news saria.
Okay. I'm in the midst of some commission work just now, but I will try tonight to get back into that and show you a few things.
Happy tableting!