Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 17

Thread: The town of Vasil

  1. #1

    Map The town of Vasil

    I'm having to throw together some quick maps for a game I'm going to be running through the holidays and I thought you, my fellow cartographers, would appreciate quick hand-drawn maps as much as finished works.
    I often find myself sloppily throwing together maps for the games, only finishing them after they've been played through once or twice. The maps are only intended to show relative positions and placement of significant structures, I have no scale in mind when I draw them. For this game the players are going to be minor nobles in a fantasy setting and I'm going to need to draw out several towns and cities for the aristocratic intrigue...
    This first map is of the PCs hometown of Vasil. Usually these "sketch maps" never make it past the pencil stage, but I figure since I still have about a month to prepare I could spend the time to ink it. The actual drawing is drawn on standard copy paper pulled from my printer; I start out with a non-repro blue pencil to rough out the shape, follow up with a soft HB pencil then finish it off with a set of felt-tip mechanical pens. After inking I use an Artgum eraser to remove the underling pencil.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Vasil Map.jpg 
Views:	260 
Size:	201.7 KB 
ID:	18619  
    Check out my works and download free samples at https://www.patreon.com/ierdesign

    "Good teachers love inquisitive students."
    "Great societies demand quality conversation."
    "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere."

  2. #2

    Post

    Here's another town that will be coming up in the game. I drew this one a year or so ago and it is still in the sketch phase and has never been cleaned up or inked.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Eledane Map.jpg 
Views:	163 
Size:	129.4 KB 
ID:	18620  
    Check out my works and download free samples at https://www.patreon.com/ierdesign

    "Good teachers love inquisitive students."
    "Great societies demand quality conversation."
    "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere."

  3. #3
    Guild Journeyer Noon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    France
    Posts
    116

    Post

    I like your handdrawn maps, probably because I like drawings. I'm sure that it would be very nice "software" map too.

    In any case, it is very simulating and makes me want to draw and make maps with CD3.
    Last edited by Noon; 11-14-2009 at 03:27 AM.
    Noon
    ***************

    My website : http://www.lechemindenoon.com
    A project of role play (with my maps): www.rhim.fr

  4. #4
    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    3,012

    Default

    Looks great, especially the first map. Have some rep!
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

    Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...

  5. #5
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    St. Charles, Missouri, United States
    Posts
    8,392

    Post

    Pretty cool and well done.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  6. #6
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Ft. Wayne, IN
    Posts
    9,530

    Default

    These are both quite nice...keep 'em coming.
    My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...

    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.



  7. #7

    Post

    I'm glad to see that these are appreciated. As much as I'd like to use software with my maps, I never learned how to use any of the available programs. I have always hand-drawn my maps and I figure that even though I'll find software handy for editing and labeling, I don't see myself creating maps from scratch with a computer; I enjoy the artistic process of drawing by hand too much

    This does bring up a good question I have: If I draw the maps by hand, which program would be best for editing, coloring and especially labeling scanned-in artwork? Photoshop? Corel? Something else? I've fiddled around with GIMP and Inkscape, but they seem a bit "clunky", probably partly because I'm just not familiar with them and also because I'm spoiled with the user-frendliness of AutoCAD (with which I'm well-practiced).

    I'm going to be sketching out a few more settlements and I'll post them here when they're done.
    Check out my works and download free samples at https://www.patreon.com/ierdesign

    "Good teachers love inquisitive students."
    "Great societies demand quality conversation."
    "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere."

  8. #8
    Guild Expert Ramah's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Nottinghamshire
    Posts
    1,414
    Blog Entries
    4

    Post

    I know Ravell's bangs on about Inkscape being great for labelling. I tried it but I couldn't wrap my head around how to use it. I really ought to put in the effort with it though as I use Photoshop and when you have a whole map filled with labels, each on different layers, it really does start to slow down a lot.
    Royal: I'm very sorry for your loss, your mother was a terribly attractive woman.


    My Cartographer's Guild maps: Finished Maps


    More maps viewable at my DeviantArt page: Ramah-Palmer DeviantArt

  9. #9
    Community Leader mearrin69's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    2,318

    Post

    Yeah. These are sharp. The town layouts look very plausible. Have some rep.

    I've had some success bringing my scans into Photoshop and placing them on top of the layer stack with a blend mode of Multiply. I've also found that it helps to save some selections to confine my painting (land, water, buildings, forest, whatever).
    M

  10. #10

    Post

    Here's another. I changed the style a bit to speed up the drawing process; for a finished product I like to keep the individual-tree style but these sketches don't merit it. I purposefully left this one unlabeled so I can play with it in Inkscape. Enjoy!
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Hedgemond Map.jpg 
Views:	131 
Size:	162.1 KB 
ID:	18642  
    Check out my works and download free samples at https://www.patreon.com/ierdesign

    "Good teachers love inquisitive students."
    "Great societies demand quality conversation."
    "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere."

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •