Glacier Valley Environs
The project that I'm working on is fairly involved (for me). I've posted a small town, tavern, and inn but this is only the beginning of the work ahead of me. So for additional help/commentary I'm going to post the "valley" that includes the town of Zeford (Zed's Ford) at it's southern end to give an idea of the rest of the project.
The images overlap around the town of Footbridge. This was intentional.
I'm starting at the southernmost town and mapping my way north. I'm trying to make the entire ecological and economical system work, i.e. how the towns, villages, and city interact with each other based upon imports/exports, local trade craft, proximity to water for fish and/or game for hunting/food, crops grown at which altitude etc. I need to keep the settlements rather small to prevent over hunting, deforestation, polluting water sources. Each grid represents approximately 16 miles and the altitude logically increases as you travel north.
This is a fictional/fantasy world though it's not very magical. If you're familiar with the authors, think Eddings or Rothfuss rather than Anthony, Feist, or Tolkien. Though magic exists it's not very common and definitely not going to be of any help to the residents of this valley.
So that's my project. This is just the beginning. This valley leads into a larger more isolated and dangerous one to the north, hence the existence and placement of Southpass keep.
"Show and Tell" might not be the best category for this discussion and if not I'll move the discussion to another forum. However, many of you have been doing this for far longer than I have and I really value your input and experience.
The images overlap around the town of Footbridge. This was intentional.
I'm starting at the southernmost town and mapping my way north. I'm trying to make the entire ecological and economical system work, i.e. how the towns, villages, and city interact with each other based upon imports/exports, local trade craft, proximity to water for fish and/or game for hunting/food, crops grown at which altitude etc. I need to keep the settlements rather small to prevent over hunting, deforestation, polluting water sources. Each grid represents approximately 16 miles and the altitude logically increases as you travel north.
This is a fictional/fantasy world though it's not very magical. If you're familiar with the authors, think Eddings or Rothfuss rather than Anthony, Feist, or Tolkien. Though magic exists it's not very common and definitely not going to be of any help to the residents of this valley.
So that's my project. This is just the beginning. This valley leads into a larger more isolated and dangerous one to the north, hence the existence and placement of Southpass keep.
"Show and Tell" might not be the best category for this discussion and if not I'll move the discussion to another forum. However, many of you have been doing this for far longer than I have and I really value your input and experience.
Comments
What font are you using?
Also like the story behind them.
Just one remark. Where is the water in the lake comming from?
Expected 1 or 2 small rivers/streams going in.
Ralf - The symbol scaling was tricky and I agree it doesn't always work but I felt it was needed to give the valley (and the valley to the north) the right look.
Gandwarf - The font is Pristina with four concurrent offset drop shadows used to make it stand out.
Henrie61 - For this map I only chose to draw in the more substantial steams. There are small streams leading into the lake. There are many interlaced throughout the area as you would expect to find in a valley surrounded by snow pack. The same can be said about the smaller hamlets. I chose to only draw in the prominant settlements and not necessarily every small village that might crop up. Though I might go back and add a few streams just to see if it looks better. I also left off clearly defined roads. However the vegetation was done so that travel would naturally follow the less dense areas and allow an ease of trade between settlements while still allowing those with courage and knowledge of the forests to travel in a more direct route through the woods and scrub or up the banks of the streams.
Jaerdaph - Thanks. There's a mix of scale options in there to reduce the cliffs organically as they extend south. Placement was very important as well to get the shadows to fall properly. The use of sheets also comes in handy. The trees on the western floor of the valley need to be drawn under the mountain shadow where as the trees on the eastern side needed to be drawn above the mountains sheet to place them in front.