Hello my friends, I'm the author of Elven Tower -Cartography website. A lot of people request rundowns of my usual work process. I've posted a few like this here in Steemit and it is high time we do another one. This is an illustration I created two months ago, in December. The illustration features a magical forest from the Feywild Realm, which is an alternate world to our own in the Dungeons and Dragons game.

The Feywild is like a clone of our world, except it is full of magical plants and creatures. Here is the finished illustration for reference.

The first step for me is to lay down the important features of the map. In this case, it's the stream and the bigger bushes, flowers, and plants. It's only the outline because any details inside I always do in a different layer.

Now I add those detail layers and let the pen fly. I also added a stone-like trail that crosses this patch of forest.

No that I have all the small stuff done and the trail in place. It's time to decorate the forest floor. This was very time consuming, everything is done by hand, one at a time. It probably took me an hour or two to finish drawing all the grass and hills.

It's time to start with color. Just like before, I go section by section, from the biggest to the smallest. In the case, I started with the stream and the trail. I first add base colors and then shade with a regular soft brush.

Now I add the blue-green color of the grass. I use the same shading brush to color the forest floor and create a sensation of elevation in the different parts of the forest.

Now that the bigger parts are there, I can start adding color to all the flowers, trunks and other plants. I am using a lively palette because the forest is from a different plane of existence.

The change here is subtle. I added a layer of shadow under all the plants. It gives the place more depth.

The finishng touches. I used a very soft brush and lo oppacity to create mist. I had to be very careful to make it look like it flows in between the land elevation. After that, I added some fireflies. This is a nightly scene after all.

A #shamelessplug here. My ilustrations are available in Hd in my Patreon page. You can also have access to my full Phosothop files to modify the illustrations and for learning purposes.

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I'm a graphic illustrator and I focus my work in tabletop RPG games like dungeons and dragons.

I'm new on Steemit but have great aims to share my work in posts like this one where people can see illustrations be created from the ground up.

Send some love, likes and follow me for awesome cartography illustrations.

I do this full time and I love creating fantastic locations!

If you're interested in my work, take a look at my Patreon page

There is a pledge level that gives access to my photoshop source files, in case you wish to see my workflow and learn in the process.