# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Town/City Mapping >  Shreeve of Shrivenshire

## J.Edward

So this map had been languishing for awhile in a color flat version as I was not sure where I wanted to go with it but I finished it up yesterday so here are some progression pics and the finished version along with the little story piece I made up to go with the name. 
It started as a pencil drawing but ultimately the whole thing got redrawn in PS and then painted. Pics then story...
Previously I posted an aged version over here - http://www.cartographersguild.com/ge...-set-maps.html






Shrivenshire, an area of writers who protested against the old king in many satirical and comedic dialogues posted as town proclamations in neighboring villages and shires.
As punishment, a shire reeve was established to keep those unrepentant writers in check. This shreeve, or sheriff, imposed crushing restrictions on written works and thereby devastated the local economy. The neighboring shires, starved of creative literature and entertainment, begged the king to grant Shrivenshire a reprieve or install some less severe person to take over. This he would not do. His pride had been injured too severely and he knew other kings laughed at his mockery at the hands of mere writers.
Many years later, after the death of the old king and the rise of his moderate and well read son, the prince of Litteran, the reprieve was granted. A thankful Shrivenshire, absolved of past ills, wrote a stunning work to the new king's graciousness and wonderful fashion sense. That work went on to become a best seller in the more fashionable districts of the growing empire.

The principal town of Shrivenshire, Olde Roods got its name as a twist on words. The area was long known for its pleasant lake and many old roads and routes through the shire led there. The region was full of gnarled old trees that refused to yield even for well trod roads, their roots extending out and causing the routes to be extremely bumpy and uneven.
Over time people grew tired of such uncomfortable travel and fewer people frequented the lake. Only the most stubborn and resolute would choose to call the area home and so for long years it has been the home to writers and old men.

Hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think.
If anyone wants to check it on DA that would be great - Shreeve of Shrivenshire by SirInkman on deviantART

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## Chashio

Inspiring! Love all of your stuff. You make me think about possibilities of design and colors and texturing in fabulous new ways.

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## Ilanthar

It's nice to see how you go from your (very good) drawing to the final colored map. I'm not completely convinced with the hills that I find a little bit too "bulbous", but I do love your forest render!

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## Naima

Pretty nice .

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## J.Edward

Chashio, I'll take that compliment. Thank you very much.  :Smile: 
Ilanthar, thanks and I will agree. I was not completely satisfied with the hills. But hey, you saw them as hills, so at least they convey.  :Razz: 
Any thoughts on would you would do?
Thanks as well Naima.

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## Ilanthar

> *By J. Edward*
> But hey, you saw them as hills, so at least they convey.


Hehe, you're damn right  :Very Happy: ! Sadly, I don't have much to propose... I think we use very different techniques. Maybe just lowered whatever process you used for getting the feeling of slopes?

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## J.Edward

Not sure if it helps but I was going for vertical rises that have a shear drop off somewhat like these pics.

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## J.Edward

So after Larb started this thread I decided that I would try a redo of Shrivenshire.
I liked it but I never felt that it was really right. And I guess I like it enough that I would redo it. 
Here's hoping that it will be a true improvement.  :Smile: 

I have nothing new to show yet but maybe by tonight I will.

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## J.Edward

Here's a little teaser of where I'm at right now [this is just a crop of the full size piece].
Lots of line work to do. For this new version I decided to not do the full landscape surrounding the town and focus a bit closer in on the town and fields.
We'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll change my mind.

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## Larb

Is this set a few years later or is it just being modified to fit your vision? I noticed the road along the lake north of the manor has gained some buildings.

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## J.Edward

It's being modified a bit. When I did the original, the buildings were just little dots really, so I didn't get too complex with what they were and such.
Now that it's a bit closer in I can add stuff and get more detail... so inevitably, I have to fiddle and change things.  :Very Happy: 

I was also not pleased with some things too and wanted to change them. I had roads around every field. That is changing.
I also realized, looking at it much larger, that the fields were big and needed some additional sheds, barns and storage buildings.
And I decided to add little town gates too.

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## arsheesh

I really love your forest style J.  I've been playing around with my own hand-drawn forest style and thus far yours is the best I've seen.  Also, those houses are really nice.  I'm looking forward to seeing this one develop.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

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## J.Edward

Thanks Arsheesh.  :Smile:  The style you have going with your Mythic Maps looks pretty good.
I have way too many trees to draw here. I'm glad a decided to zoom in a bit.
The original size forests would have killed me.
I got a bit more done but there's still loads to do - and that's just line work.  :Surprised: 
But I'm glad I'm redoing it. I think it will look much better and it's a good practice for doing fields and trees.

The title text will probably change, they I do kind of like it.  :Smile:

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## ChickPea

Gotta echo Arsheesh's comment about the forests. They're looking amazing.

Am loving this already!

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## J.Edward

Thanks ChickPea.  :Smile: 
Here's another update. Didn't get as much done today.
There's so much to do.
Larb - I've been thinking about your question...
I think this might have to be a bit in the future, after the Prince granted the reprieve.
Some people moved back and now it isn't just writers and old men.  :Very Happy: 
Though they still hold a grumbling majority... it's going to be tough to convey those knotty rooty routes and roads but I'm going to try.

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## Larb

I just noticed the mushrooms in the bottom left corner. \o/

Those trees look great but I'd dread having to do that many.

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## DanielHasenbos

This is already looking lovely! As said before, the forests are great and I like how you did that rivers through the forests (:

-Dan

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## J.Edward

> I just noticed the mushrooms in the bottom left corner. \o/
> 
> Those trees look great but I'd dread having to do that many.


I am dreading it.  :Smile:  I keep thinking - is there any way I can make it easier or something? - but nothing comes to mind.
Those little images are part of that font, which is so cool. 
It's called Bajka. It comes in Regular/reg.italic, bold/bold italic, and ornamented with the letters being illuminated and the numbers and other bits as little storybookish images. Very cool.



> This is already looking lovely! As said before, the forests are great and I like how you did that rivers through the forests (:
> 
> -Dan


Thanks Dan
I made a point in this version to do the river and lake more detailed than the first version.  :Smile:

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## Ilanthar

Waiting the next steps with pleasure! You've such a good line art and your title with the little illustrations is excellent.

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## Llannagh

Once again a map that takes me away to different places and sparks my imagination... already!  :Smile: 

Very nice. Respect for the detailed trees and the level of detail in general. My father was a landscape gardener/architect/planner (don't know the exact english term) and this reminds me a lot of the plans he used to draw. That being said, I often wondered why I enjoy drawing maps so much. I guess it comes from my father's side, I just realized! Thanks for reminding me, J.Edward!  :Smile:

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## J.Edward

> Waiting the next steps with pleasure! You've such a good line art and your title with the little illustrations is excellent.


Thanks Ilanthar  :Smile: 



> Once again a map that takes me away to different places and sparks my imagination... already! 
> 
> Very nice. Respect for the detailed trees and the level of detail in general. My father was a landscape gardener/architect/planner (don't know the exact english term) and this reminds me a lot of the plans he used to draw. That being said, I often wondered why I enjoy drawing maps so much. I guess it comes from my father's side, I just realized! Thanks for reminding me, J.Edward!


Thank you Llannagh  :Smile: 
I used to do some landscape design for a company I worked for years back. I also had to do all the planting too. Small company. 
I've always had an abiding love of landscape design drawings.  :Very Happy:  [And architectural site plans too.]
I think it's all part of my whole thing with trees. I really love trees so I'm always trying to find good ways to draw them.
I've actually gotten a good amount of my work due to my rendering of architecture and plants/trees.

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## J.Edward

It's been a while since an update. I haven't had much time to work on this but I still got a bit done.
This is just going to take a while to do, especially with my current schedule.

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## arsheesh

This is is gong to be another beauty!  Very clean linework btw.  Love it!

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

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## ChickPea

Looking good!

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## J.Edward

Thanks arsheesh and ChickPea - I just noticed the comments... really late.  :Surprised: 
Another map set to the back burner.... must get a handle on these orphans.  :Wink:

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## Kargan3033

Nicely done J.Edwards I am impressed, the color and details in the last map in the OP is very well done, I look forward to seeing what you do next with this map.

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## J.Edward

> Nicely done J.Edwards I am impressed, the color and details in the last map in the OP is very well done, I look forward to seeing what you do next with this map.


Thanks Kargan  :Very Happy: 
I got a bit behind on some of my maps, and now with the Guild World map they'll be even more behind.
But they will continue.  :Wink:

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## Ilgoth

I'll be that annoying fan, and yell "DRAW FASTER GODDAMNIT!"  :Evil:  Looking nice Ed, will follow your work thoroughly.

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## J.Edward

> I'll be that annoying fan, and yell "DRAW FASTER GODDAMNIT!"  Looking nice Ed, will follow your work thoroughly.


Ah, I can't draw faster... I'm not drawing on this right now...  :Razz: 
After a bit more Guildworld stuff, I will be coming back to this map. So no worries Ilgoth  :Wink:

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## tilt

Hi J.Edward - you might have written it elsewhere but I've been away for a while  :Wink:  ... I wonder about your medium of choice? .. pencil on paper?.. how about the houses, simple ruler or do you make those in the computer instead?. how about coloring?  :Smile:  Really love your style, and definitely share your love for those landscaping drawings.   :Smile:

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## J.Edward

> Hi J.Edward - you might have written it elsewhere but I've been away for a while  ... I wonder about your medium of choice? .. pencil on paper?.. how about the houses, simple ruler or do you make those in the computer instead?. how about coloring?  Really love your style, and definitely share your love for those landscaping drawings.


Thanks Tilt  :Smile: 
Well, I used to really enjoy doing my maps - pencil on paper - and then if I liked it I would then ink it.
Then I started doing more commissioned maps and time became a factor, as did precision and ability to make changes and try other options.
So I got to doing a lot more of my work straight digitally.
So this map is a redrawing of a pencil sketch but all redrawn in PS.
No ruler, just freehand buildings. It gets easier the more you do it.
There's also a training exercise to work in the hand-eye and muscle memory thing.
It was a free Gnomon course thing I did a few years back. It helped a lot.

For coloring, almost exclusively PS. It's hard to beat the options and the layers and undo and all that.
I go back every so often and do some pencil sketching and occasionally some ink drawings but have had so little time lately.

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## tilt

Thanks for sharing  :Smile:  
I thought you'd colored in PS, made sense, both with the multitude of options and the layers and undo  :Wink:   ... I was thinking of starting of on paper with the lite challenge this month - never been much of an illustrator though, so its normally hard to be up against those who can actually draw  :Wink:  ... but sketching on paper and then finishing of in PS makes sense to me as well, and I think I can get some more freedom in my map by starting outside the computer.  :Smile:

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## J.Edward

> Thanks for sharing  
> I thought you'd colored in PS, made sense, both with the multitude of options and the layers and undo   ... I was thinking of starting of on paper with the lite challenge this month - never been much of an illustrator though, so its normally hard to be up against those who can actually draw  ... but sketching on paper and then finishing of in PS makes sense to me as well, and I think I can get some more freedom in my map by starting outside the computer.


I've found that to be true.
The screen, to some degree, limits how I think and/or what I think about when sketching.
The freer nature of pencil and paper is hard to beat. Go anywhere, draw anywhere.  :Smile: 
After I scan in the image, I'll usually set it to multiply and paint on layers beneath it [so long as paper is white - not off-white or cream, which will become too dark as multiply].
I really need to do some pencil sketching soon - which is just about right, as it's warming up outside, and I need some sun.  :Wink:

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## Chashio

Huh. I've missed a bit of progress on this one. Very nice.  :Smile:

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## Aldersprig

I love your fields in the original - coming from farm country, they look homey to me, though I do find myself wondering what exactly they're growing in the orangish ones.  I like how you have houses/buildings between every few fields, too.

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## J.Edward

> Huh. I've missed a bit of progress on this one. Very nice.


Thank you. Always appreciated.  :Smile: 



> I love your fields in the original - coming from farm country, they look homey to me, though I do find myself wondering what exactly they're growing in the orangish ones.  I like how you have houses/buildings between every few fields, too.


Hey Aldersprig  :Smile: 
Thanks. I put a lot into fields and forests. I'm quite fond of them irl so I bring them into maps when I can.
I'm origianllay from central PA, but moved a lot. I used to hike up in NY state when I lived in northern NJ.
Beautiful land up there. Some of my favorites hikes. No doubt I bring in my north-eastern US influences into my maps.
I throw in a bit of English and European farm/field influences too.
Need to get more familiar with other types. I want to do some step farms and hill farms.
I used to live in the caribbean and got to see some crazy farms and villages perched precariously on the sides of hills that would be fun to map.

The orangish would probably be some flowers that they derive an oil from the seeds. Maybe they also use them for dyes and fragrance.  :Smile:

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