I feel like I didn’t do a whole lot, except I spent the last 3 hours working around Mideel Island and Hawk Island. Working on the waves around the land, just so I didn’t forget how I did it last time with the Eastern Islands.
MIDEEL / HAWK ISLAND
I think I was running into the issue of thinking about the technique too hard. I need to remember, if I’m doing something new, I should record it. I’m a very visual learner and if I could see what I did the first time I did the water/waves around the island, I could feel confident enough to do that technique again. I was kind of winging it on this one with a bigger land mass. Except both are islands but I’m going by the design in the game, where there’s a clear difference of shallow and deeper waters. Mainly because of the part in the game where we navigate the water using a busted sea plane (The Tiny Bronco, built by Cid Highwind) as a paddle boat. The only paths to take at that point are to use the lighter shallower waters, close to land and through the rivers.
I also think I’m getting a Monet vibe, where it looks amazing from far away but up close it’s questionable. I’ll have to revisit this when I’m not tired but I’m really kicking myself for not recording what I did. I love the look of the waters around the Eastern Islands. Why doesn’t it look the same? 🙁
NORTHERN CONTINENT
I did work on this part of the map a little bit today. I had some in-game reference pictures but not a lot. I need to get better ones at some point. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the direction and it’s making me remember that point in the game. We all know the part.
SKETCHBOOK SKETCHES
I did remember to take pictures of the sketches I’ve done months ago, maybe even a year ago. I sketched out map assets for Costa Del Sol, North Corel and Nibelheim. I might transfer them onto my map during my next progress update. I really only have 1 1/2 days left where I can do more updates on my map project. I guess I could make it a goal to dedicate at least one weekend a month to really dive deeper on the official map and lay down official assets.
Looking back at these sketches, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. There’s some perspective issues, but I know that’s one of my biggest weaknesses. But also, it’s a little different because I know these assets are going to sit differently once it’s placed on the map.
I’m thinking back on when I did these sketches. As per usual, it was later at night and maybe in the middle of it. I was actually using my Prismacolor colored pencils to color in some of the sketches. I had bought a bigger set at the time, just so I could use it for sketching. I should probably utilize them more.
I think I’m at the point where I can’t go further in map planning because I don’t have very good in-game screenshot references. I’ll have to go to one of my saves in the game and take new screenshots. In the meantime, I do have screenshots of other towns like Wutai, Gongaga, Bone Village and Rocket Town. I could sit down with my sketchbook and just do detailed sketches of those areas.
Not a bad way to end the year on. A 3-day blitz of using my drawing tablet. Depending on how New Years Eve goes tomorrow, maybe I can squeeze in a couple of hours to make it 4 progress updates. For 2023, I’m aiming to at least have 50% of the map complete OR completely finish the Midgar Area / First Continent. Whichever comes first I guess. Here’s to the New Year. Cheers!