The markgravate of Greifshold - first attempt at a campaign map

[DaggerAndBrush]

Hi all,

a while ago I drew a campaign map for my DnD group, but kept it as a simple line drawing on a parchment texture. Lately I decided to colour the map in as a first attempt of making a campaign map.

I was inspired by medieval maps with their often weird isometric perspective. The drawing itself is more of a rough style and I debate in my head if I should go for something a bit more clean and refined. I thought of the colour spilling over the parchment.

I initially drew the map and its features rather small and enlarged the elements in Photoshop. I think I could add more detailing to the city at this larger scale.

I do like the light texture I achieved with a grunge/dirt brush on grass and mountains.

Shading etc. was done using layers in Photoshop, which also enabled me to try out a "nighttime" version of the map.

Opinions about the visual appeal of the map(s), suggestions and constructive criticism is always welcome and will help improve my technique. My next map will be a graveyard encounter and crypt map.

Tings I would like to improve:

1. Cleaner lines, but I would like to keep the "rough" appearance in some places.
2. Better mountains. I feel they are a bit featureless at the moment.
3. Adding some trees and lakes to the mix.
4. Experiment with some other styles, inspired by the Carta Marina and Tabula Peutingeriana.

[DaggerAndBrush]

Ahoi,

I started working on another map, trying out some new stuff.

This time it is a regional map of the Weeping Forest. It is still WIP, but I am happy wih the look of the tees so far, as well as the small farm stead. Not too sure about the small graveyard.

I still need to add aruined temple and mountains in the back and obviously clean the drawing up.

I also intend to colorize it, maybe using a autumnal colour scheme.

C&C very welcome

[arsheesh]

Looking really good DaggerAndBrush! There's a sense of movement in this latest piece, I think due to the fact that the trees tend to point toward the upper-right hand side of the map, complimenting the 3/4 perspective. Also the the wide range of trees keeps things interesting. Dig it.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Josiah VE]

Those look great! The linework is very well done.

[DaggerAndBrush]

Thank you arshseesh. I didn't realise while drawing the map that all the trees point a bit to the right, but that sense of movement is actually a nice coincident.

I am still debating with myself if I should change the perspective for build structures, but the 3/4 perspective is reminiscent of old school console RPG's, which is a plus

Thank Josiah, glad you like the linework. I need to clean it up here and there (I always feel I need to add something "in front" of an element which leads to overlaps, but glory to digital editing!).

[HereBeLions]

As everyone else has said, the Weeping Forest WIP looks great. It's a bit like a storybook illustration, and the places are very interesting; the little house in the front, the river winding through the wood, the graveyard, the great big tree with what looks like an entrance... I'd love to be presented with a map like this at my table!

The illustration on the first map is just as good, but I feel the bright colours take away from it a bit. Desaturating the colours would help it a lot, I think, especially the night-time one which looks kind of like somebody's hitting it with a blue spotlight where the shadows should be. A good rule of thumb is that shadows are less saturated than lit areas.

Also, I know the colours look bright in the daytime variant because of their saturation, but they're actually pretty dark in value, which is what's taking away from the lovely linework. Try making a layer on top of the image, flood it with black and set it to 'Saturation' to see the image in black-and-white.

[DaggerAndBrush]

HereBeLions,

I fully agree. The saturation is something I didn't like about the first attempt. I tried to adjust it some (see link), but in the future I need to take this into account when I start colorizing it. I found a very good tutorial on Fantastic Maps which first draws shades with a dark brown, only then colors liek green and blue are added using overlay and colour layer options. It looks much more like what I had in mind.

Alternatively I may need to work with much lower opacity settings.

All that said I did learn a lot from my first map and may use the elements in later works.

[DaggerAndBrush]

Ahoi,

I tried my hand at some more regional mapping, playing around with mountains and a different scale. All to prepare for finishing the piece above. I also thought it may be instructive to have a drawing of the environment from the perspective of somebody travelling through it. Together I hope this will achieve a sense of a living world. Anyhow, I will add some more texture to both, but "saved" at this very moment to be able to colorise them as well. I think a traditional line drawing with lots of texture may be detrimental to a colorization with pastel-style colours.

[vgunn]

This are great! Keep it up, love the style.

[DaggerAndBrush]

Thank you vgunn. Glad you like the style.