Heima: Commissioned Map

Author Shawn Gunn commissioned me to make this map for his upcoming novel (www.swgunn.com/heima)

The black and white look was chosen so that it would look its best printed crisp and clean on the page of the book.

As usual, I had a great time drawing the mountains. The border was a bit of an exploration--I'm getting more complex with borders, but I still don't want them to overwhelm the map itself. I used a new technique on the forests, and I like the way they came out. Yes, the trees look a little "large" compared to the mountains, but it's not a satellite view, after all. Maps are symbolic, and these features, especially in a fantasy/medieval map, are meant to convey the most important and relevant information to the viewer.

You can click through on the map to be taken to the my Deviant Art page where the full resolution version of the map can be downloaded.

The Known World: Commissioned Map

This map was commissioned for an upcoming tabletop fantasy roleplaying game. I won't link to them, because it looks like the game has not been published yet. The basic layout of the continents was supplied in a simple sketch by the client, and the features you see were developed through many rounds of revision in consultation with them. 

I had to work out techniques for several types of terrain, going through trial-and-error iterations until I decided a given region looked right. I like how most of those details came out, and I've used variations on those themes in later maps. There's very little in this illustration that's repeated--every mountain is unique, hand-drawn, and connected to the rest of its range.

I've had people comment about the "rivers lying on top of the forests" problem in this map. I admit that this simply didn't strike me as an issue when I was drawing it. I've become more sensitive to this issue as a result, and I now try to make sure it doesn't happen on later maps.

Because Squarespace down-samples images over a certain resolution, anyone who wishes to see a full-res version of the map can click through to the DeviantArt page.

Arachadia: Commissioned Map

This is a map for an upcoming novel called The Necromancer, by Alex Stargazer. I worked with the author's original sketch and got guidance from him during the process as to the particular details the map needed to show. I like to work through open lines of communication and provide regular "progress proof" images so that each client winds up very happy with the result.

Azuline Falls: A Town for Adventure

Here is my first large, complete map of a town or village, created for the August 2014 challenge over at cartographersguild.com. I won! My prize is a shiny gold metal (made of pixels) that sits next to my avatar.

The idea of the challenge was to take an existing photograph and then imagine and map all of the stuff that's "around the bend" and not actually shown in the photo. You can see the original image in the upper left box--a waterfall near Portland, Oregon.

Because Squarespace has a way of downsampling high-res images, I'd recommend following this link over to Deviant Art where you can download the full resolution map and see all of the intricate details.

Runner Up: The Valley of Blood and Gold

a.k.a "Where Elves and Dwarves Go to Die" 
In the "backstory" for this map, the Elf and Dwarf factions are the civilized and important people, while the humans are mere tribesmen and tribeswomen living on the margins of their great conflict.

This is the finished map related to this GIF comparison: (http://xianpryde.deviantart.com/art/Finish-It-Animated-Ink-Comparison-465165307)

It was runner-up in the June 2014 challenge on cartographersguild.com -- I'm grateful for all the votes I got, and look forward to going for the win next time!

I worked out a number of refinements to my techniques in producing this map. It was a great experience. All of the artwork was produced in ProCreate on an iPad 3 with the Adonit Touch Stylus. The text labels were laid in with Photoshop.

[Important to note: not all of the work here is mine. There was a bare template of existing mountains and details that I added to, which was the point of the contest. See the comparison GIF for the look of what I was given to start with.]

Progress on an Island in the Clouds

I've been working on a land for a setting in my campaign, tentatively entitled the Sea of Wing and Thunder. It's a mountainous plateau named Arlath...an island in the midst of an ocean of unbroken clouds.

I have lots more little details to add to the place, but I thought it would be fun to put up an image showing the progress so far. Sometimes you just want to share something you've been messing with for a while.