Forgotten Graveyard, Adept

Your map this week is the Forgotten Graveyard (24x24), a rare tiny map in which I tried to pay extra close attention to the small details. I've found that I tend to have an easier time giving each part of the map its due when I work with smaller maps, which doesn't come up terribly often since I usually whip up maps closer to 35x35", so I feel like it's a little treat when I get to make more compact maps every once in a while.

1. Simple enough stuff, my main goal was to make this distinct from my previous graveyard maps. Looking at the previous 3 I've draw, they're usually sprawling with winding paths cutting between crooked gravestone and crypts. This one was designed to be more structured, with a simple path and straightforward layout, though crumbling and decrepit.

2. As I'm trying to get all my month's wrapped up before this weekend, I went into this map intending on it being a quick turnaround, which wasn't exactly how it ended up as I got lost in the sauce a little, tweaking gravestones with little details, roughing up the walls, and taking 2nd and 3rd passes at the big bushes growing on the walls. If I were a more efficient artist I would get these things done the first time I drew each element but I tend to go over a map in passes, gradually improving on each issue when I notice it. I think my work speed is probably one of my greatest weaknesses as an artist (alongside my inability to draw people and animals (that's right, that's why I make maps)).

3. More autumnal colors! Yep, after last week's map it seems I'm still iterating on this palette, though I think I'm making some serious headway now. The plan now is to lean into the colors, ensuring that the whole image doesn't creep towards being a vaguely yellowish mass. So for this one I gave the grass a few more percentages of green and I inched the trees closer to darker olive greens and oranges, providing some much-needed contrast. Also, notice the tiny stream's outlines are back to being regular untinted lines, another lesson learned after last week's map. I think that smaller streams which, in my mind, are a little rougher, don't benefit from the lighter outlines as that gives across the impression of calmer waters. Who would have thought? I'll continue explorations into this in my next map, which will be more focused on a small stream.