2nd day in a row of using my drawing tablet. It honestly feels real good to just sit and use it. I’ve managed to get some more progress done on the map. It’s still just the planning and sketch phase but it has me excited for when I do the assets for real. All of the spots highlighted in gold are areas that I worked on.
I completed one set of Eastern Islands that I had started months ago. It’s not really important pieces of land but it’s there on the map. When I reopened my file, I was confused at first because everything was pretty much done, the cliffs, the beach, different values of green grass and also the forest on the biggest island was done. I also tried out a new technique for the islands. I wanted to test and see how I was going to paint the shallow waters around it. It turned out a lot better than I had expected. I’m surprised with the result and I think this is the technique I’ll use when I eventually have to paint the shallow waters on everything. That’s going to be a whole day or two doing all of the water. That should be fun, but it’s probably going to be the last thing I do. Admittedly, it was really fun to do even though I have to use 3-4 different colors and go around it with a textured brush several times but the end result made me so happy. Overall, I think it took me maybe 30-45 minutes.
NEW MAP UPDATES
NORTH COREL/GOLDSAUCER AREA
I went back to this area to fill in the western mountains that divide it from Lucrecia’s Waterfall Cave and Nibelheim. I actually had a couple of reference pictures but they weren’t great. (I really need to write down a list of areas I need screenshots for)
I went over this area in red just so I can still kind of use and reference what I did yesterday. The way the mountains divide the land here is going to be a challenge. But also, I need to figure out how I’m going to do the desert part of this area. I almost want to just jump in and figure it out but I’ll wait until I’m ready to tackle it for real.
Aside from the beach areas on the map, I don’t think I’ve worked with anything that’s like a desert. The Midgar Marsh would be the closest thing but that doesn’t count XD
ROUND ISLAND
I definitely changed up what I was going to do with Round Island, which is the island you get the Summon Materia, Knights of the Round. I had attempted this many times before in my sketch book and even in Photoshop but never liked how it looked. This time I wasn’t thinking too much while I was doing this and I think that helped. I still had an in-game reference picture but I guess many times before, I was thinking about it too hard and got really frustrated. I’m definitely happier with this, even if it’s just a line sketch and it’s somewhat messy.
DOG ISLAND (or at least that’s what I’m going to call it, lol)
It’s in the shape of a Shiba Inu, at least that’s the breed that it looks like. I took a picture of the map from the back of the strategy guide and that looks more like a cat. NORMALLY I would always side with CAT but the in-game reference has it looking more like a Shiba Inu puppy. Maybe I should call it Shiba Island instead.
BONE VILLAGE/CITY OF THE ANCIENTS
I actually ventured onto the snowy continent where Bone Village, City of the Ancients, the town of Icicle Inn and where the Northern Crater sits. But I mainly focused on Bone Village and the little gorge where the City of the Ancients is located. Also, I don’t think I was thinking about where the grass and snow start or ends when I first planned out my map. lol. I had to push more grassy area onto the bottom part of the continent. I was just quickly sketching and messing around with the foresty part where Bone Village sits but I just used a basic brush and drew circles around and used 3 different colors and I actually kind of like the forest look. But I actually have a tree brush that I use and want to be consistent with on my map.
I’m kind of looking forward to this area of this continent as well as the Northern Crater. But what I’m excited about is the contrast between the lush forest of Bone Village to the icy cold gorge where the City of the Ancients lie. I hope I can make the gorge look like its elevation is below Bone Village.
OTHER UPDATES
Some other uninteresting updates I did tonight was go through the Midgar Area and add in the cliffs and land that I missed. I had a passing thought of redoing some of the old Midgar Area assets but it’s kind of nice to see where and how I started to the refined style that I’m currently using. So, I’m going to keep it as is and just draw around it. You can see the new Kalm town asset in the screenshot. I’ll be making a separate post on that.
The other areas that I worked on are:
- The chain of islands to the south that connect the Southern Continent to the island where the Temple of the Ancients is at
- Refining the North Corel Area
- Eastern Islands #2
- West part of Midgar. It needed more of the cliffs to be drawn in that also go down south towards Junon
- Materia Cave #3, added more of the mountain range
- The little beach area that is north of the Chocobo Farm
Not too bad for starting a little later on drawing tonight. 8:30pm – 3:30am. I’m hoping to get 2 more days worth of drawing before I have to go back to work on Tuesday, Jan. 3rd. I’m definitely feeling the groove and maybe just maybe I can lay down some real assets on the main map file that I use. Here’s hoping.