Been slowly working on this self imposed world creation project.
Running through the process as it's evolved.
It actually started before these ones as something I scribbled out years ago, and then reused and remade for this. I might try and hunt up those older drawings too.
Here I tried to remake it with a more iconic and unique continent layout, using a spiral. Basically anything to get away from things looking too much like Azeroth.
This was where a real evolution of the design came in, with some quicker marker ideas. It's got an odd continental drift to it as things got moved around and added/removed. And the general themes of splitting the world down to two different sides, one with more real world concerns with politics and technology and one with fantastical relgious and mythological ideas. Playing through SMT Nocturne at this point may have had a
little bit of influence.
Here's the WIP of the current (and hopefully final) version of the map I'm working on. This is both the stages I've gone through and technically the layers of the image. Not sure exactly where to go from here. Whether to go with more of the watercolour I've started with the water or go full painting for it or even go back to the physical version and fill out details with marker. I've experimented a bit with a tree brush but it didn't quite come together how I'd like. I might have to do that by hand and re-scan if I want those put in. Also not sure if I'll put in more simplified icons for cities and towns rather than circles or do that on closer in regional versions of each country/region.
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I dig the WIP touches you're making on the design, in terms of adding the cloth texture, the stylized coastal shading, and the watercolor washes for the oceans. It sounds like you're running into a literal vs. representational challenge with the concerns of the cities and forests. It's really just a measure of how stylized you want it to be...The mountain ranges you're got featured look excellent, and some of the other touches, like in the upper lefthand quadrant, those ellipses on the mainland (swamp?) look excellent.
If it were me, I'd just favor strong coloring of the landmasses. You've done a fantastic job on the oceans. If you're going for forest favor dark greens. Maybe even express a rougher texture on the greens for the most wooded areas. But I bet if you do a generalized coloring to represent the climates and ecosystems, the suggestions will be strong enough to fill in what you want the map to feature. After that, whether or not you want to add icons to the map or not will become more clear, in terms of what requires it.
Keep up the good work!
Most recent map iteration is pretty great. Looking forward to seeing some color on the landmasses. Been drawing anything else, holmes? Been a loooong time.
Creating a world is a marathon, not a sprint. That's my excuse anyway.
Still need labels and parts like compass roses and borders.
Anyway. Human embryo? No, of course it's not a human embryo. It's more of a crater also, had some difficulties when I was colouring that section.