Vivid Glen, Adept (Patreon)

This week's map is the Vivid Glen (45x45), a colorful forest map just like I used to make nearly every week a few years back. I think this looks a little better than the older ones, though honestly I feel like I have a harder time coloring maps these days- my standards a little higher these days and I'm not winging it quite as much as I used to. Let's talk about it below!

1, 2. Sorry to say I lost the sketch for this map, seems I deleted it from the PSD and saved over it without catching my mistake- sorry about that! However, I don't think the layout changed much from those initial sketches, minus a few trees I felt were clogging up the middle of the map slightly. I actually was considering cutting the pools of water at the bottom of the map as I felt they were a little awkwardly placed but ultimately I couldn't put anything else there that seemed to look nicer or more fitting.

Thoughout the sketching/outlining process I was considering how I could add something evocative or interesting to this map, like a goblin camp or ruins of some kind. I considered adding things for so long that I had largely finished the map by the time I decided that some sort of structure would have looked real nice in the middle if I had rearranged the map to accommodate it. That's one of the risks of my process I suppose, I have to somewhat rush the planning process to get to the time-consuming outlining as quickly as possible, that sometimes doesn't make for the most inspired maps. If I wasn't dedicated to making 4 maps a month then I suppose I could spend extra time on layouts, but that's the biz and that's what I've signed up for- all I can do is try to make great layouts with the time I've got.

I wanted to make a bright, cheerful, colorful map this week, something to shake off the dreariness of all those hazy caves and dreary Shadowfell landscapes I've been drawing. And you know what? I found it hard as hell, somehow! I must have grown accustomed to making maps with much less contrast because I had a crazy hard time balancing the greens, blues, and browns, and managing the brightness against the shadows was a huge pain in my butt! It's crazy that I've come to this, maps with this aesthetic used to be something I could whip out in 4 days flat if I focused hard. Somewhere along the way I've lost the touch for whipping out plain ol' forest maps, who would have thought?