Skellig Michael

[snodsy]

### Latest WIP ###

I have been working on top down maps for the last year or so and think? I'm getting pretty good at creating valleys with shadows and topo lines.

While the topo lines I have been using work pretty well in some cases, they don't capture the extended VERTICAL cliffs of other landscapes.

So this is a practice map trying to use my style of topo line drawing as an initial line work to create the landforms and initial shadowing.

I then wanted to capture the cliffs and rocky outcroppings. Haven't gotten there entirely yet, but work at erasing layers of topo lines in places to create taller cliffs and erasing where green hillsides soften the rock.

Comments welcome.

[Mouse]

Firstly - I really, really wish I could do hill shading like that, and I would love you forever if you ever decided to do a tutorial on it

Its mostly convincing (and drawn very cleanly and clearly like all your maps are, which makes it a pleasure to look at), and the only reason I noticed just this one very tiny thing straight away is because I've been struggling and toiling with my own cliffs in Guild City.

Most of the time you have drawn the vertical lines of the cliff face perpendicular to the apex or ridge at their summit, but (and IMHO) it seems to me that where you come down the southern coast below that road and facing that little island just off the coast, the tendency is for those lines to sheer towards being more vertical to the page than perpendicular to the line of the ridge. If you turn the map on a tilt so that the road is horizontal I think you will see what I mean. The vertical aspects tend to lean very slightly to the right on average, whereas they would look better pointing up the page on average at that tilted orientation - away from the island and perpendicular with the road.

I have enough trouble with cliffs myself, so I'm not even going to attempt to draw an example or be so bold as to try and correct what in my opinion is the only thing wrong in the entire map, but I do honestly believe that there is what I would call an 'ISO perspective tendency' in that particular group of lines.

This is, of course, only in my humble opinion

EDIT: Having just checked out what the island actually looks like on GoogleEarth, I can see why you have tilted those lines the way that you have - the strata and rock forms are themselves tilted, so you might well decide to totally ignore what I said

[snodsy]

Thanks Chick for the comments about the cliffs on the southern side, I do get what you mean. The waves hitting the coast was the other thing that I was trying to work on. This map is really just a practice map, so I think I'm done, just can't get excited about it anymore. Actually I've been struggling this last month on doing any map at all, just burnt out I guess. So I'm putting this one to bed, thanks for your through review.

[Voolf]

This is looking very good snodsy. The shading is very subtle and nice. Too bad you decided to stop working on that. To me it seems incomplete, some additional shade for sea and the roads would be good. Anyway if it was just a practice, then i hope next map will have it all.

[Ilanthar]

Hope you'll recover and keep on your practicing when ready. This was really promising.

[ThomasR]

Rest and take care, we need more of your maps !

[Mouse]

Take a break somewhere nice and warm without any phones, or computer games, or anything that demands attention from you...

Try not to worry about the maps. Let them come to you

We'll all still be here when you take up the tablet again

[BlindBlake]

Great work, the island really seems rocky and rising from the waters. I really feel the Irish island atmosphere I miss so much, thanks for the free travel