Hilltop Watchtower, Behind the Scenes (Patreon)

Here's this week's behind the scenes, now new and improved with more steps and commentary!

1.  This map is heavily inspired by an area in perhaps my favorite game, Guild Wars 2, a little scouting camp overlooking a bridge in Kryta. So, I had a pretty strong idea of what I wanted to do when I started drawing the rough sketch. Looking back, it looks like very little actually changed after this point, so surprisingly little to say here.

2. Usually my second step is to lay down major lines (large rock faces, outlines of dirt and grass, etc.) but I ended up drawing the entire watchtower before I knew it. I knew it was going to be the most interesting thing in this map (and the most interesting thing to draw) so I just couldn't help myself. I kept the transparency of step 1 so you can get an idea of what I'm doing here: I use the rough sketch as a guideline but I'm not beholden to it, there's plenty of wiggle room. 

3. Last time I talked about how I wanted to get away from putting too much detail in my rocks, but I decided to lean into it this week and see how it goes. I liked it a lot, though I don't think I'll got this in-depth every time there's a bit of open rock (I think the map would look empty if I didn't this time).

4. The little details, 'greebles', that draw everything together. I really liked how last week's bushes turned out, so I'm keeping it up (probably permanently). Also random rocks and a neat little boulder at the south end of the camp (perhaps big enough to hide behind or take cover from). I never really know where rocks will be until I get there, but I feel like they add something of value. Let me know when they get out of hand though, cool?

5. The camp. I sometimes struggle to remember the scale I'm working with, so I needed to do a bit of research and make some rough estimates before I drew up the tents. I can't always say that it's a camp for gnomes, right? I actually broke one of my rules for this one, I drew the tents with perspective, but I really think it was necessary to get the idea across. Tents just don't read well when they are just rectangles (at least in my mind).

6. Boom, color! I started shading before I remembered to grab a pic of this stage (sorry), but it does show how I start with lighter colors and darken everything as I go. I think I brought down the rock colors after a little while, there's a time and place for (nearly) white rocks but I don't think it's now. I love this step, it does a lot for my morale if I don't think the map is shaping up.

7. And the finished product, with shading and everything. I love the pop I get when I throw in shadows, there's an awesome sense of depth when you shade just right. I tried to imply height to the watchtower that I'm still not sure came across, but hopefully everyone gets the idea. As usual, there's also my crumpled paper texture that I can't stop myself from putting on top of every map.

That's all! I'm hoping to post again by Thursday, maybe something deserty this time (I'm getting sick of grass). 

Cheers!