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Thread: Drawing a map in one week: A decent into madness

  1. #1
    Guild Apprentice
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    Jul 2015
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    Wip Drawing a map in one week: A decent into madness

    I last posted nearly a year ago. Since then, I haven't drawn a single map. Actually, I haven't drawn anything, except maybe some doodles in the corners of a note pad. You can imagine I'm rather rusty, which is pretty frustrating. I'm also excruciatingly slow at everything I do, and drawing especially so. And so, at three in the morning, sleep deprived and with excess caffeine rushing through my veins, I decide to lay a challenge before myself: start and complete an actual map before next Saturday. Don't ask why, I'm no longer sure myself.

    Half the fun of this little challenge is that I'm drawing with literally no plan. I just drew a coastline and started adding some mountains. I'm not even sure what the scale for the map is. I'm just having fun remembering how to hold a pen.

    I've been working for the past few hours and have finally hit the point where I need to crash, but I figured hey, lets make cartographer's guild watch my decent into madness, and so here we are.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Somehow by accident I drew a coastline that looks like a creepy clown face (at least to these blurry eyes). So I guess this is going to be the Laughing Coast or something like that. Those forests are pretty weird looking but I figure whatever, we'll see where stuff goes from here. If I don't like it when I have a fresh overdose of caffeine tomorrow, I'll change it.
    Let me know what you think.
    Cheers!

  2. #2
    Guild Master Josiah VE's Avatar
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    Nice start! Especially for being 'rusty'.

    You should try one of the guild challenges sometime!

    I offer map commissions for RPG's, world-building, and books
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  3. #3
    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    Yep, I agree - good start. And I kind of like those forests. I've tried time and time again to get that look and just can't seem to do it, so kudos sir!

  4. #4
    Guild Expert DanielHasenbos's Avatar
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    Nice start an great idea, I will be following this thread (:

    -Dan

  5. #5
    Guild Apprentice
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    Mission Report, Day 2

    Progress is slow. I spent most of the few hours I have available messing around with a mountainside fortress that I ultimately scrapped. Still lots of linework to do, but being an unpredictable man I decided hey, lets just go ahead and shade one of those forests. So I now have one lovely forest and a bunch of other unfinished things, including a bizarre region of farmland.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    I am not happy with the bulk grassland color choice but I'm struggling a bizarre amount trying to find one I like. So that's mission critical before I move on with coloring.
    The actually more important bit, the linework for the vast swaths of unfinished stuff is a bit tricky. I want to do a desert or wasteland area beyond the mountains, but I've never drawn a desert before. I might mess around with dunes, or maybe I'll just do a rocky, chasm-y and spike-y area. Who knows?!

    Thanks for the interest and support everyone. Just four more days to go before my deadline!

  6. #6
    Guild Master Josiah VE's Avatar
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    Nice update! I like the colour of the grasslands actually.
    The forest also looks nice, though perhaps it could use a little bit of grungy variation, not such a smooth bevel? But a near smooth forest like that is actually an interesting style, almost cartoony... I kind of like it actually.

    Those farmlands definitely do not fit it. To me it looks like a mosaic or color glass stained window pasted on.. sorry. First of all, I think the colours are too bright I think..

    I offer map commissions for RPG's, world-building, and books
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  7. #7
    Guild Expert snodsy's Avatar
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    Nice job, I like your forest alot, especially how the outline comes into the forest in some area, I may use that technique on my forests. Nice linework on the mountains too. The multi-color farmland may be a little busy, maybe just done it down to a more monochromatic color may help (or at least all the same value as the forest/background?
    Doing it in a week just starting out is pretty ambitous. Good luck. I see your from Ohio, what part? I live in Northern Kentucky and work in Cincy.

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