Tornalia (WIP - later stages)

[Scott Livingston]

In these stages, the digital map is starting to take shape. I sketched rough ridgelines along the places where mountain ranges would be, then drew in rivers and lakes in the valleys (tracing those shown on the hand-drawn maps and adding many more), and filled the ocean area with a blue color.

Next, I used an airbrush to draw mountain ranges. The map's light source is to the south and west, so the south and west faces I drew in white. In order for the white to show up, I changed the background color of the landmasses to a light gray. I used a darker gray airbrush for the shadowy north and east faces of the mountains. I then switched to a finer airbrush in order to add detail and sharpen the peaks, and repeated this process several times, using a slightly finer airbrush each time. As you can see, the shape of several mountain ranges (particularly the major chain in the center of the map) changed several times over the course of the project. I wanted to make them look realistic, but still a bit stylized. During this process, I used this tutorial for guidance: http://www.zompist.com/howto2.htm. By the third image in this set, most of the mountain ranges were done, and the central one was on its way.

I improved the ocean around this time as well, using an airbrush to add a second color around the coasts (I highlighted the water area in order to avoid coloring onto the land).