Twisting Path, Adept

I'm back again with a new one, the Twisting Path (11x16), a small forest map with a single winding path among craggy ledges, perfect cover for small creatures trying to climb without being seen. And, with that in mind, your alternate version of this map features Fey colors instead of my typical forest palette, prompting magical encounters with fey enemies in these woods. Or, you know, wolves or spiders, those are good too.

1. Often when designing forest maps I fight against my desire to fill the map full with trees and overgrowth, which might feel like an easy way to make a map feel realistic but actually just over complicates and clutters things. I've found that the best forest maps have just enough plant life to give the impression of a massive forest off-screen while leaving lots of the map free for maneuvering on screen, maybe with one or two trees in the middle of the map to help build the impression of a dense forest. This also helps keep the map readable, since tree canopies hide the important parts of the map (the ground). Essentially, I think that rocks and bushes do a lot more for setting the scene than trees, even when I might be tempted otherwise.

   

2. I've been toying around with the thought of drawing new trees recently, while I'm on the topic. My standard trees are starting to look a little off to me somehow, under-detailed maybe? I'll have to try out a few different styles and see if it sticks so I can prepare a new PNG full of treetops. But anyway, while they might look a little low-detail compared to the bushes and rocks and things it's not the end of the world since they're on a separate elevation than the rest and therefore have an excuse for looking mildly different. What do you think, was that a good enough deflection?

   Oh also, tell me if you've heard this before, I returned to a different style of rock wall for this map. I feel like the style I've been working on recently, which mainly features the horizontal contours of the rock walls, is a little... ugly. I think I kept trying it because it helped give the impression of height and tiers, but the result doesn't look very nice. This week's attempt similarly emphasizes the tiers of the terrain with lots of small chunks of rock wall, similar to the Winding Creek from several months ago. It wasn't a style I tried for long, because it didn't end up looking quite like I imagined, but I think I worked out what wasn't clicking for this week's map. The difference is much more variance in the height, size, and shape of each chunk of rock wall, which ends up feeling way more natural and realistic than the dozens of small, similarly-sized rock walls I tried before. So, to summarize, I've been making maps for 7 years and I still don't know how to draw anything, haha.

   

3. I think my colors have been much more consistent recently, and I'll tell you why- it's because I've been checking the end results of multiple screens before finalizing each version of the map. I've found that, after coloring and shading a map to a point where I feel like I'm nearing completion, it can give me some insight to export it real quick and check how it looks on my phone or on another monitor, just to see how the colors might change. Often, I find that maps that look well-balanced on my main monitor look absolutely blown or extremely over saturated on my phone, prompting me to take a few more passes until I end up with something that looks good on both. The resulting maps might not be as much of a swing as they could have been, but I'm much happier with the consistency.