Vaniya - WIP

[Ramah]

Thanks for the comments guys, it really spurs me on to try and make it is good as I can when I get good vibes from the feedback.

Gandwarf: Hehe. Sorry to have worried you there. Really, the bright colours were only meant as an aid to visualising the country shapes (for you and for me). In fact, they are actually still in there... well... some have been changed a little but essentially they are there... they've just been changed to a Luminosity layer, which gave me the nice adjustments to my original green map that I was after.

Naeddyr: I may still adjust them slightly to make it easier to see some borders (I'm personally not fond of the small non-mountainous border between Rydony and Aronbor which is too hard to see) but not by much. I might tinker round with it and do an alternative version once I'm finished but since I changed to a more Tolkien-style hand-drawn lookfor this map I've had a very definite idea of how I wanted it to look.

[Ramah]

Time for another update.

Things done on this update:-

Border changed. Removed the green from around the edge and have decided to go with a single colour map which I guess looks more real, if that word can be applied to such a map.

Added a simple cartouche and scale bar. I doubt I will change this much, maybe the wording slightly before I sign off... dunno. The scale I have put in is still somewhat malleable though. I'm really unsure what distance to actually go with. I'm kinda working on a figure I have (maybe plucked out of the air) that a line of a mountain range would be about average of 50 miles across. Does that sound reasonable? I'm sure they can go higher or lower but... *shrug*

Not done much to the labelling other than add a series of towers and keeps along the coast of Aronbor. I reflected these extra icons in the key but I've since removed this as I couldn't find a decent way to work it into the cartouche. I might try and work it in along the bottom border in the style of...

Flavour text. Marginalia. Whatever. I've added a bunch of flavour text around the edges of the map in varying degrees of legibility. I think it looks kinda cool as it is. What do others think? I'd prefer to not make it too legible but if I'm in the minority I could change that. I doubt I'll scrap it totally even if people hate it - I like it.

That's about it I think.

Still to do:-

Finish labels.
Redraw the hills.
Finishing touches - label legibility, major roads etc.


Edit: Gah! I clicked submit before I added the image into the text with the paperclip thingymajig. :s

[Ascension]

With a map this clear I favor being able to read the notes. Sure the faded look is stylish but I'd really like to see those notes If you want to keep the faded look maybe there's a way you can fade out parts of the map in conjunction with the notes (ie they're both faded out in the same places and not randomly faded).

[Ramah]

Another small update.

Finally pulled my finger out and got down to adding some brushes for the hills. I've been adding a few for days now and then plonking some on the map and not liking the results and closing it down in disgust. Tonight I think I've finally passed my stumbling block though and I quite like how they are starting to look. I've not done much of the map in the new hills yet, but if you check the southern island of Maradan you will be able to see what the hills will look like soon - now that I've sussed it I'm sure I will be able to do the rest reasonably quickly.
I've also dirtied the map up a lot more and added some folds since it was last posted.
I altered a few of the countries colours subtly to aid in seeing the borders, although the border between Perdon and Mirkesh is still a little too indistinct I guess.

[ravells]

I really hope you're going to put this in the 'finished map' section when you're done. It's looking stunning. I admire your tenacity in getting the look that you want rather than settling for less.

[Karro]

Kudos, this is looking quite stunning. I see the changes to the hills on isle of Maradan, and I agree, these look much better than the version used elsewhere in the map. Good luck putting it all together! I'm sure it'll be worth the effort.

[Bohunk]

Absolutely beautiful map. I was going to tell you to handdraw the hills as well. You have come this far, take that extra leap. I would also think about, if you have a tablet, tracing the lines in the ocean around the land and making it more smooth. Can't see it taking too long and would make it look so much better. I hate the folds in your latest version though. Weren't most maps back in the old days rolled and put in tubes? I tell ya if I spent this much time on a map and some yahoo folds it up and puts it in his back pocket, I'd be pretty peaved!

Again, awsome map. Ravells----> Map Feature this badboy when its ready!

[Ramah]

Absolutely beautiful map. I was going to tell you to handdraw the hills as well. You have come this far, take that extra leap. I would also think about, if you have a tablet, tracing the lines in the ocean around the land and making it more smooth. Can't see it taking too long and would make it look so much better.

Thanks a lot.
Unfortunately though I don't have a tablet and that, I would say, is the main reason this thing is taking me so long. I've been putting off doing the hills purely because I know how awkward it was to do the mountains with the mouse. Add to that that I am naturally left-handed and yet control the mouse with my right hand and let's just say that my fine control with it when trying to draw is not always the best. Hehe.

I said in my last post that the hills shouldn't take me too long to adjust... well I was wrong. I've had a few sessions on them and hardly seem to have scratched the surface. :s Man, maybe I should just go out and get a damn tablet on the credit card or something.

Anyway, thanks for all the kind words guys.

As to the folds... I'm still unsure about them myself. I really like the effect and I'm not too precious about it being historically inaccurate with tubes and folds etc. I'm sure I will have a few changes of heart about them before I sign off on this thing.

[Karro]

I'll vote for the folds. I think it's a simple but very useful device for making a map look like it has actually been used in-world (even if it's not terribly realistic for it to have been folded).

[Ramah]

I agree Karro, although I may go with the horizontal folds only, so it kinda looks like it's been folded into a letter format and maybe stuffed in a saddlebag for postage.

One thing Bohunk should be cool with though is that I've fixed the coastal ripples as per his suggestion - this one I happened to agree with wholeheartedly.

As I don't have the tablet though I had to be a little more creative and instead feathered my ripples by increasing ammounts. As this has the knock-on effect of blurring the strokes I then used an Unsharp Mask to bring it back to how it should be and then had to redraw a few places in where it had tight curves and had disappeared. There's probably an easier way to do it but I don't know what it is.
Anyway, it looks pretty good. If I get enough work on the hills done later today I'll post an updated image.