Hello my beloved guild!

Today I'm going to share with you the biggest topographical endeavour I've had to work with and I'm enjoying every piece of it (thank God I got a new computer earlier this year), so I thought I'd share some of my enthusiasm. It's a commission and I'm posting the progress with permission.

The workflow is inspired by Artifexian's series on atlas mapping which I warmly recommend to anyone interested in the topic.

GPlates

The first step was making a sketch in GPlates so that I wouldn't have to bother with the projection while drawing.



Illustrator: Coastlines

Second step: reproducing the coastlines in Illustrator.

Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview 2.png 
Views:	59 
Size:	1.60 MB 
ID:	130656

We later improved the alignment and worked on the shapes. (You can open the files in different tabs in your browser to be able to compare each version.)

Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview 3-01.png 
Views:	46 
Size:	1.23 MB 
ID:	130657
Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview 4-01.png 
Views:	39 
Size:	1.25 MB 
ID:	130658
Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview 5-01.png 
Views:	52 
Size:	1.34 MB 
ID:	130659
Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview 6-01.png 
Views:	34 
Size:	1.39 MB 
ID:	130660
Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview 7-01.png 
Views:	67 
Size:	1.38 MB 
ID:	130661

Illustrator: Topography

Topography. <3 This is how it first looked.

Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview snippet 1.PNG 
Views:	46 
Size:	267.6 KB 
ID:	130662
Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview snippet 3.PNG 
Views:	33 
Size:	134.2 KB 
ID:	130663

Then after some adjustments.

Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview 8 wo rivers.PNG 
Views:	26 
Size:	379.6 KB 
ID:	130664
Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview 8 massif zoom.png 
Views:	40 
Size:	419.3 KB 
ID:	130665

I also made a very professionally-looking sketch for the rivers (in red are the areas I haven't worked with yet). I'm really looking forward to designing the river networks, but a lot more topography will happen before I get to that point!

Click image for larger version. 

Name:	j preview 8.png 
Views:	69 
Size:	492.8 KB 
ID:	130666

There is a 400m interval between each layer, which means the massifs reach up to 6,000(+399)m.

I'm going to regularly update you guys on this from now on. Ideas and feedback welcome!