ORTHODOXY Sketches

Just a quick update here, but a little while ago I added a page to the Projects section – it’s called “Sketches” (was “Sketches & Miscellaneous”). Basically it’s just a ‘running gallery’ of sketches, WIPs, and mostly unfinished things I’ve been doing recently. Last night I did a few sketches for my friend Jordan Voltz’s KickStarter Project, Orthodoxy RPG. Below is my favorite color sketch (there are 3 additional sketches on the Sketches page), as well as one of the new headers for the page sections.

The Duellist, one of the traits in the Orthodoxy RPG

I chose to do a less traditional representation and focused on “duality” (a purposeful mis-reading of “duel”). I actually reasoned it out, too – duels often occur(ed) between friends/acquaintances over perceived slights & wrongs, so “friend & enemy”.

Overview header image for Orthodoxy RPG Kickstarter

Jordan asked me to create some new headers (or update the old ones; I chose to make new ones) with some sort of embellishment rather than just text on a textured background. The nature of the Kickstarter site doesn’t allow for changing the page background or even the color of the font, so I went with all new headers, black on white. One of the major rewards we’ve offered are laminated, hand-embellished player screens (“sect screens”) – 5 to each backer pledging $100+! – and we’ve got 2 backers who’ll be receiving those. I chose the font and the design for the header with those screens in mind; depending on what I can find at an acceptable price, I’m hoping we’ll be able to make the sect screens out of fairly heavy-duty parchment (or kraft-paper-colored) paper rather than white/off-white. That will best offset the hand-embellishment, I think – except an update about those player/sect screens fairly soon!

 

 

Wo0t Maps!

Okay, that sounds really hyper-active far-side-of-the-moon can’t-find-my-brain (yeah, that’s a ‘zero’ in the title), but let me explain:

After avoiding drawing and even art in general for almost a year or so, I’ve been getting back into it. Over the past few months, I’ve picked up a couple commissions for illustrating maps of fictional worlds, and even created the front cover of an RPG manual (just a home-brew RPG by a group of friends down in Argentina, but it’s not a map! And they just signed off on the front cover and are hoping I can do the front pages of the Bestiary and Herbs sections of the manual (^o^)v ). Okay, so doesn’t sound like much of an achievement to warrant leek-speak (or leet-speak, for that matter), but effectively finishing one of the first major maps I took the commission for and finishing that RPG manual cover and finishing another map (okay, I feel done, but the commissioner has to sign off on it) AND getting not one, but two paid commissions from some truly excellent people … Now all of that is definitely enough to encourage a little slip in spelling and grammar.

Now, I’ve been asked to not share the RPG manual cover by the commissioner, but I can share the 2 maps I’ve just finished (okay, okay, as far as I know they’re finished):

Drawn for Matt Hoffman (Technospiritualist at the Cartographers’ Guild forums). He’s working on a novel, the first draft of which he’s almost done with (!), and this map is of the ‘world’ of the story.

This one was done for another novelist, Steve Pote (Blahman919 at the Cartographer’s Guild forums). He provided a rough hand-drawn map, which I essentially ‘traced over’ in Photoshop to ensure that everything was placed properly. The lighter lines … Hah. Are roads, which I need to label. Now I see that. Well, other than that, the map is done, as far as I know.

And in the interest of branching, here’s a small sketch I did earlier today. It’s actually part of a larger, image, but …

To see the whole image you’ll have to check out my new website, 99 Colored Umbrellas ! (I know, original, how original!) It’s still under construction, but you’ll find that image there, so check it out ^-^!

 

Zoning

I’ve pretty much just been working (a little) on the map of Graven these past weeks as I prep for the CELTA course. The pre-course task took forever, but it’s done now and I have a little time before classes start. Like, a day. I’ve “zoned” the buildings and the map, separating them by wealth/”use” (residential buildings are divided into wealth “zones”, but commercial, industrial, and office buildings aren’t really). The map does show density/wealth a little bit, but it’s mostly just for my own reference so it’s not very clear. Basically, the darker the color, the denser and “poorer” the area. The lighter the color, the less dense and “wealthier” the area. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the densest areas are the poorest or the least dense are the wealthiest – a lot of dense areas are also wealthy, with gated communities and beautiful uses of not a lot of space. There are also plenty of poor areas where buildings have been demolished (partially or fully), or where there just aren’t a lot of (permanent) buildings. I’ll be working on refining exactly where buildings will go, where I’ll need plazas and parks/green spaces, etc. tonight, and hopefully by tomorrow evening I’ll have finished placing all the buildings. I’m also hoping to do some area sketches, especially of the “poor” area, with a lot of notes for the upcoming comic (!) I’ll be working on that during lunch hour at CELTA, so I’m leaning towards a penciled-with-light-digital-painting look (actually, Badirfilay is a great example of the sort of line and color style I’m looking at).

Here’s a look at what I’ve done with the zoning so far – maybe I’ll have a more detailed “notes-map” locating things like central plazas, major parks/green spaces, etc. later this evening.

City Map Layout/zoning