FEB 2016 CHALLENGE: The Goblin Emperor

[Carnifex]

Nice border. I love illustrator... and layer styles

[arsheesh]

Mountains look beautiful. Can't say as I'm a fan of the border though. It seems to clash with the hand drawn image rather noticeably.

[xpian]

@arsheesh - I agree, currently it's rather clashy. I wouldn't have it this way in the final image. I'm just experimenting with the look, sharing the process, and hoping for feedback. Thanks!

[jshoer]

Don't change a thing about those mountains!

I like the iron scrollwork and gears, but I'm not a fan of the gold fading into the rest of the map. I think some other transition would be better. I don't really think a fade from border to map is quite right, nor deleting the gold layer and leaving the scrollwork open. Maybe just something metal and beveled behind the gears, with a hard edge around the map?

That compass is wonderful. I love the broken symmetries.

[ravells]

Those mountains are glorious! I'm not sure if the rivers are squiggling (technical term!) the right way though...they look off, but I'm not sure why.

[xpian]

I have a new wrinkle to the saga of the Goblin Emperor map. I contacted the author, Sarah Monette (a.k.a. Katherine Addison), letting her know that I was doing a map of her world and giving her the option of providing feedback to me during the process. I did this partially out of courtesy; as an author myself, I imagined that if someone online were doing a map of my world, I might appreciate a notice from them. I also did it out of a personal commitment to accuracy. I'd like this map to be as good a version of the Elflands as possible, and since the initial sketch was a bit...sketchy...I thought it couldn't hurt to pursue the possibility of the most accurate information. We can't ask J.R.R. Tolkien about parts of his maps that aren't well detailed, but Sarah is an active, vibrant, living author capable of commenting on things. She's also, reportedly, working on another book set in the same world as the Goblin Emperor, which means she might have details about that world that have yet to be published in any form.

I can report that she's happy! Happy to be contacted, happy that I'm working on the map, happy to give feedback. (I should note that there's no contract between us, and no money being exchanged. I didn't choose this project for any purpose other than to participate in a CG Monthly Challenge. It just seemed like it would be wasteful not to at least inquire with the author if she'd like to have input, given the fact that she's available.) The wrinkle is that, now that we're talking, she's informed me that the sketch map posted on her web site is NOT the most accurate map. In fact, during the writing process, Sarah had to re-draw the map from scratch in order to have it be accurate to the book and to serve her purposes as an author (keeping all the locations straight in her head).

So. Now I have a new sketch as a template, which is more accurate, but is a little different from the original sketch. I'm going to have some changes to make. Thankfully, I'd only gotten so far in the mapping process.

Here is the author's new sketch:

[Chick]

Those mountains are glorious! I'm not sure if the rivers are squiggling (technical term!) the right way though...they look off, but I'm not sure why.

Rivers running through mountains usually flow pretty straight, since the slope is steep and the rivers carved their way down as the mountains grew. I wouldn't have them meander nearly this much in the mountainous part. Once on the flat, the middle section of rivers looks like it's meant to be at an isometric angle, hence the fairly sharp right/left bends, perhaps a little too sharp. In the bottom part of the map, this changes to a more realistic meandering look.

My suggestion would be to straighten the rivers through the mountains, widen out the bends (considerably) in the center, and keep the meanders at the bottom. The center section has wiggly lines on a small scale but much too straight on a larger scale. Also the wiggles are all the same size, they should vary a lot more, from that size up to 10-20 times the size of wiggliness.

[ravells]

What a great idea to contact the author, Xpian and kudos on her response! Comparing the author's two sketches it looks like you've got more mountains to draw (but that you can keep most the existing ones). Yay for me, I get to see more of your beautiful mountain work!
best
Ravi

[xpian]

@ravells - Thanks! Yeah, I'm enjoying drawing new, even bigger mountains over there...

@chick - Rivers do lots of different, interesting things, depending on the terrain they're flowing through. Some mountain rivers do run amazingly straight for long stretches, often because they're flowing through a long ravine or something. Some mountain ranges are young and some are very old, and the way rivers flow through them can appear rather diverse. These rivers here are flowing in and around the mountain forms, in a way roughly similar to these images of the Sierra Nevada and the Himalaya I'm including below.

[Chick]

@chick - Rivers do lots of different, interesting things, depending on the terrain they're flowing through. Some mountain rivers do run amazingly straight for long stretches, often because they're flowing through a long ravine or something. Some mountain ranges are young and some are very old, and the way rivers flow through them can appear rather diverse. These rivers here are flowing in and around the mountain forms, in a way roughly similar to these images of the Sierra Nevada and the Himalaya I'm including below.

All true I was just trying to address Ravells' comment about the squiggle shape looking "off".