WIP - Aronbor... or Perdon

[Ramah]

Ok, time for another update.

The bulk of the work on this one has been taken up with the hills. The shading was very long and slow and boring. But for now I've completed all the original locations. I'm sure I'll add more in a few places as I progress but for now they are done.
The rivers have been sorted out in the main, except I want to excise a few more superfluous tributaries in the north. A small job but means another rebuild of my land and coastal strokes etc. so I'll finish those for next time.

I've also added a subtle colour change to Aronbor. Maybe too subtle for as it is now but I'll alter the surrounding country colours for the next update so it stands out more.

I'm fiddling with the look of the coastal strokes at the moment, mainly because I wanted the rivers to be a uniform brown colour. They won't remain exactly how they are at the moment (I haven't even blurred the edges) although they may be similar but with more rounded lines.



Next up will be forests.

[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.

[Tear]

So my question is, which do you think looks better?

It depends on the final printing size, but overall I like the smaller tree size.

[Ramah]

Heh. That's strange. And annoying.

I decided to add an adjustment layer during the final effect stage to alter the colours so that the images posted up here are more representative of what I actually see in PS (I really need to have a crack at altering the colour settings in the program).

The Vaniya map and the ones I have posted so far in this thread have all been a touch dark and cold compared to what I see when working on them. So I spent some time last night getting it to save the jpegs so that they looked very similar in Windows picture viewer to how they do in PS.

But when I check that image that I just uploaded in Firefox I can see that it is now showing too much yellow in the image. I've warmed that bad boy up too much. :@

Zzz.. I guess I'll try halving my adjustment layer settings and see if it makes it any better for the next update.

[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.