Thread: Haibianr - WIP city map

Had some time tonight while waiting on a call so figured I'd try to finish up this island at least. I've got all of the buildings blocked in. Now to figure out how to finish them. For now I've put on a very light emboss...which doesn't look too bad I guess. I'm going to try to render some details on a small section to see how it turns out...but not tonight. Any suggestions welcome.

@SG: I haven't explored redrawing the bridges yet. Will give your suggestion a go when I do that.

@Coyotemax: Thanks for the rep
M

Okay. So. I didn't like the results I was getting from my attempts to freehand the map in Photoshop. I started over, this time with good old pen and paper. This is drawn on 14"x17" smooth bristol using Staedtler pigment liners (0.7 to 0.1, mostly the smaller). I took it to Kinkos and had it scanned at 600 dpi...though they're going to rescan it in color for me because "greyscale" really turned out to be black-and-white halftoning.

My plan is to lay color (light watercolory feel) under the ink lines. I will likely separate the outlines into different layers for buildings, walls, vegetation, etc. so I can treat them differently. Looks like I have to redo the vegetation because my inking there really sucks. I also have to figure out how to convey the impression of the rising terrain surrounding (and under!) the city using color rather than lines.

I'm waiting on my new scan before I do too much work on this...though I'll probably play around with it some.
M

edit: oh, the funny things on the hills are terraced fields, mostly rice paddies.

YOU ARE INSANE! How much time did that take with a pen? Did you pencil sketch first? Fabulous!

-Rob A>

Holy Poop!!

That is an immense amount of work in there, and it looks really good just like it is, fantastic!

is your hand okay? Did it fall off?

seriously, wow.

Heh, thanks guys. I didn't expect so many replies...or the bucketload of rep. Much appreciated.

@RobA: I took my original scan (p.1 of this thread) and dropped on lines representing 1" squares on my 14"x17" paper used that to transfer a sketch of the coast, rivers, city outline, roads, etc. in pencil. I just roughly suggested the roads in the city area and then started drawing in buildings. Couldn't really sketch the buildings in pencil first as most of them are quite small. I didn't keep track of how long it took...maybe 6-8 hours?

My hand is surprisingly intact! My eyes on the other hand...

Hopefully I'll get a chance to try some coloring tonight.
M

That looks really great. I admire your perseverance with it.

Thanks! Not sure if how often it's kosher to post WIP progress - if I'm overdoing it someone please let me know and I'll slow it down to significant milestones or something. This doesn't look like much but it actually represents several hours of work laying down some basic color, setting up layer masks for painting, etc.

The basic "vegetation layer" (essentially groundcover) is done and ready for fine detailing when I get the rest up to speed. I'm going to work on the underlying ground color next, trying to suggest terrain height and shape. Then I'll work on refining the ugly forests. Staying away from the buildings right now because I want to wait for my new scan - I think it'll lay over what I do here if I stay away from the niggly bits (another technical term).
M

Those colors are sweet! Mint green, steel blue, and grayish-teal...very nice eye.