September Challenge - Gymnopus P

I've decided to enter the September Challenge at Cartographer's Guild.

The Challenge this month is to draw a map - any map - using only the colours dictated by a minimal palette. There are 6 days to go, and the other 15 entrants have already been working on their maps for the last 3 weeks.

This is the preliminary sketch, which includes a copy of the palette I have chosen.

Wish me luck! :D
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Comments

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited September 2016
    The RGB Matrix Process sheet effect allows me to convert any texture I like to a particular colour in tonal shades of grey (which have been permitted due to the otherwise totally severe restrictions of the palette). The patches of texture are there to demonstrate the effect, and not as a permanent fixture ;)
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Second draft, same as the first.... only kidding. I've been up for about 36 hours with this bee in my bonnet, so this is where I'll be leaving the map for a while.

    All things considered, I might actually make the deadline with this one, even though I now only have 5 1/2 days left, and despite the highly experimental style ;)

    I hope to get the block colours sorted out in the next day, and move swiftly on to a number of layers of different coloured line drawing to soften the edges and detail everything.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Done some shading - never done it before, so it may be a bit rough!
    03.JPG 445.5K
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    A lot of stuff has changed and may things been discovered during a string of really quite bad accidents (including a crash I caused that lost all the links to the textures). Hill shading is really easy - accidentally draw a sketch line on the wrong sheet - one with a heavy blur on it - and there you have instant hill shading :)

    New smaller size, owing to unexpected loss of broadband quota.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Posted By: LoopysueNew smaller size
    That smaller size is actually much more viewer friendly, as it allows people to actually see the whole map inline in the forum without scrolling. Much easier to appreciate the actual map that way.
    While I love having access to a higher-resolution version for closer inspection, it is much better to have that one linked from the post, and a more viewing-friendly size like this embedded in the actual post.

    I really like how this is coming along though.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited September 2016
    Thanks Remy :)

    And I agree on the smaller size thing. When I get my broadband renewed I'll replace the other images with smaller ones, but right now all I'm doing is conserving as much as I can.

    I'll post a link to the final image, since that will have to be a large one on Cartographer's Guild - the final entry to the Challenge. You should see some of the other maps I'm up against. They are just jaw-droppingly beautiful.

    I've already picked the sure winner (and I have absolutely no grand illusions about winning a gold compass this time around):

    https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=35381&page=5&p=314885&viewfull=1#post314885

    (You have to take a close look at the map to see the real artistry involved in this one by Kacey, as personally I don't really like the purple ocean, but then - this is a restricted palette challenge)

    This is the sister thread to my own at the Guild, at the post equivalent to the one above, but right now there's not much more to be seen in the bigger picture because I've only been working on it for the last 3 days, whereas the others have already been drawing away for the last 3 weeks:

    https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=35579&page=3&p=315311&viewfull=1#post315311

    NB: For anyone who doesn't already know, my alter-ego over on Cartographer's Guild is "Mouse" - I am Mouse.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    I've stitched the foreground to the middle ground and more or less finished both middle and distant ground. They don't require the same amount of detail as the foreground. Had a naming spree, and started working down the right hand side of the river bank, adding forest, grass, and doing a little work on the colouration of the river.

    Think I will do the cities as plain blocks of red, only suggesting a man made outline. Haven't got the scale or time to do anything more than that.

    Problem with the left hand side of the river - its way too high coming down to the sea. think I know how to correct that without having to redraw too much, but that's a job for tomorrow when I'm fresh :)
  • Sue this is looking great. Not sure if its just my old eyes or if you intended it this way but, is the entire valley supposed to be a continuous slope to the rivers? It almost appears that the basin has a flattened feel to it but as I get to the foreground with the initial shading area and water for some reason my eyes are seeing a steeper slope all the way almost to the center. Almost like its being folded.

    Its probably an optical illusion at the moment due to the palette and the fact you still have work to do, but just an observation from my point of view.

    I do think your work on the mountains is beautiful and well done.

    Keep it up, great work as always.

    Bill
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Hey Bill - thanks :)

    You're right about the amount of work to be done, and its not helped by the way I have to waste tomorrow by going for bloods and then having to walk back from town after dumping my car to have some work done on it, but I'm hoping to have it mostly fleshed out for the Challenge, which is due to close to entries on Friday evening.

    I have just so many fields and towns to put in....

    They are the reason why the foreground doesn't look right yet - there's no detail in the valley floor whatsoever apart from the river, and I haven't even finished coming down the right hand side of the valley beneath the mountains.

    The mountains had to come first. Being a painter, I always work the background, and then the foreground. The fields will help with the illusion of foreshortening, as this is a relatively oblique view of the land from quite a distance out and above the sea ;)
  • Sue, I am sorry to hear about the car and hassle, it does put a damper in productivity thats for sure. I love watching your progress so please keep them coming!

    I would offer you a ride, but its a bit of a long haul from the states.. ;P

    Bill
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    LOL! Thanks Bill. Sentiment appreciated. I just wish it was the other way around - long walk then bloods!

    The map will be finished, since its just about half done right now - and that's even if I miss the deadline ;) I'm kind of enjoying pushing the boundaries as far as they will go.
  • That is really beautiful, Sue. I wish that I had the eye or the technique to draw that kind of stuff.

    LLAP

    Nacon4
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Thanks both :)

    Things are getting a bit frantic at this end. I'm beginning to panic - and it shows...

    I deleted some of the hills, but when I changed my mind I realised I'd only just that second saved the file over the top of the version I was going to get them from!!!

    Having to do quite a bit of redrawing...

    Urgh! Why do I always have to go and panic!!!
  • Thats why you need to save as a series of fcw files... filename01_001, work on it, save as filename01_002, work on it, save as, etc. That way if you delete something in filename01_002 you wanted to keep, its in filename01_001.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Aye. You're right.

    Well, if I don't manage to get this right before close of Challenge, then at least I tried.

    Going square crazy at the moment. Too many fields!!! (But I need them to reinforce the perspective, so I can't just not do them)
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Now that I only really have one full day left (today being full of real life commitments), for better or worse I have to tell myself that the right hand side of the river is done.

    C&C welcome :)
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Thanks Storm :)

    I think I must have gone into autopilot last night, as I don't really remember actually doing most of it.

    That's not a good sign - its the way I used to cope with sticking to deadlines in the days when I used to write tender bids for a living, and indicates near exhaustion.

    I don't know what it is about this palette, or this map. All I know is that I just have to finish it in time.
  • This is beautiful Sue!

    It looks like an alien landscape. Terraforming Mars?

    Wonderful!!!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Thanks Shessar :)

    I hadn't seen it that way before now, but you could be right - complete with GM red and purple cereal crops! LOL
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited September 2016
    My car wouldn't start, so I haven't been able to go and do my duties. The positive upshot of that, however, is that today has been reprieved, and I can carry on working on the map.

    This is just a process shot. Its just for anyone curious about the way I visualize the scene just a few moments before I set about drawing it properly. Its a screen shot of a few white lines on the previously blank orange space to the left of the map, showing where I see the mountains and forest when I look at the picture in my head. Whether the finished item will look anything like this, remains to be seen. Another interesting experiment ;)
  • This is amazing, Sue!!! You truly are an artist :)
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Thanks Lorelei :)

    That means a lot coming from a professional cartographer like yourself ;)

    How's it going, by the way?
  • I'm absolutely loving this Sue. You are making people around the world re think about cc3+. I've tried to draw with the tool but I could never get good results. Mainly because I really have no art experience. But the way you are using this program just inspires me. I love watching the progression. Thank you for explaining your methods as well. It has really helped me to try to visualize things better. Fantasic job on this!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Thanks Tonnichiwa :)

    All around the world?

    Oh no! Now I really am panicking!!! LOL!!!
  • Lol...yep. I don't know if you've actually thought about it Sue but I'm from Washington State U.S.A, others on the Cartographers Guild are from places like France, Israel, Korea, Brazil..etc...so yeah...the world. And I'm fairly certain just about everyone is impressed with what you have been doing with cc3+
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    ROFL!

    Numb fingers and toes... sick feeling... can't breathe...

    I've got stage fright!

    What a good job I'm not trying to do this on Skype!
  • Posted By: tonnichiwaLol...yep. I don't know if you've actually thought about it Sue but I'm from Washington State U.S.A, others on the Cartographers Guild are from places like France, Israel, Korea, Brazil..etc...so yeah...the world. And I'm fairly certain just about everyone is impressed with what you have been doing with cc3+
    If not, they need to be. Fantastic maps !
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