WIP - Aronbor... or Perdon

[Ascension]

I feel your pain about shading one line at a time...takes forever. But the results are usually worth it and yours looks great, so, there ya go

[Ramah]

Ok, time for an update.

A lot of my time since last I updated was spent trying to get the sea and the coastal area looking a little spiffier. This led to me to working on the outside of the map and I think that how that area looks now is close to how it will finish up.

I've also ROUGHED in most of the forests. I stress this point, I have only used two brushes (one evergreen and one deciduous) and spent very little time on them. They will be completely redrawn.
My main reason for this is I am uncertain about the size of the trees. And so I have a question to anyone reading this...

I figured that with a much bigger area to play with this time I could make the trees smaller and still have slightly more detail than on the continental map. But I'm not sure they work at a smaller size without looking a little too... umm... busy.
The forest in the NE corner of Aronbor was done at the smaller size. All the other forests were done at a size closer to the original Vaniya map (but still a little smaller).
So my question is, which do you think looks better?

Anyway, here it is.

[Ramah]

A new update.

I've spent a lot of time on the trees since the last update. Too long really. Man, is it getting on my nerves. Hehe.

Anyway, I've got all the evergreen trees in and maybe a third of the deciduous trees in. I still have the massive forest in the Ruhks to put in, which I am not looking forward to one bit. Ah well.
I have shaded between most trees, except some in the north where I have deciduous trees to place next to them.

Btw... I know about the clump of trees in the northern area which have lower opacity than the rest. They were the last group I did before finishing for the night and only when I had added a few little effects did I realise I had drawn them on the shadowing layer. Zzzz.

I've also added a new lake in the NE, mended a few little things that only I would probably notice anyway and added a rough sketch of Colden Wall. I may edit this as I go along but I have left it purposefully rough looking to tie in with the rest.

Umm... I think that's it. For the next update I should hopefully have all the trees finished and will make a start on adding places and labels.

And here it is...

[Ramah]

Ok, another quick update.

I've finished all the original forests now except for the daunting Ruhks. I think I might not actually place too many more trees in the Ruhks actually as I don't want to lose the colour change in the base map and I think it will be hardly noticable if I cover it all with trees. I might just put a ring of deciduous trees around what I have and then maybe try fading them out. I originally tried fading the forests and hills out where the base map colour changed towards the edges but I didn't particularly like the effect. Ah well.

I've also started to place some labels in. I've not done too many at the moment, just a handful and I haven't put any markers down yet. This was basically a font test and to show you the results and the fonts I have decided to go with. It's strange, I really loved the ilShakefest font I used on Vaniya but for some reason it was just sticking out to me on this one, demanding to be changed.
Anyway, I've gone for two fonts which I hope will keep the hand-drawn feel/look that I am trying to achieve for the most part.
The labels are only roughly placed at the moment and will be moved, twisted, resized etc. for better flow/legibility when I get down to it in more depth.

Anyway, this is where I am at the moment.

[Gidde]

They both look good, but I think I like the larger size better.

An unrelated issue -- the way those two rivers in the northwest go all the way through the hills, it looks like they flow in two directions at once.

[Ramah]

They both look good, but I think I like the larger size better.

An unrelated issue -- the way those two rivers in the northwest go all the way through the hills, it looks like they flow in two directions at once.

Yeah, I need to adjust that I guess, although the rivers are actually nowhere near connected. But I put a sinuous crevasse type thing in whilst shading those hills and it's made them look connected. :S

Ah well, I still need to delete a few tributaries up there so I guess one of those will do nicely.

[Steel General]

I prefer the larger trees, though either would work just fine.

[Ascension]

I like the smaller trees...makes the mountains look bigger and cooler.

[Ramah]

Well that's two votes for the larger trees and two votes for the smaller ones. I guess I have my answer... medium sized it is.

[Gidde]

The trees ended up the perfect size, and I love that wall!

This is turning out beautifully.