Hello my friends, I'm the author of Elven Tower -Cartography website. A lot of people ask for tutorials 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 mountain pass in a fantasy setting. There is a small caravan currently passing through.

This is the finished illustration for reference.

As usual, I begin by drawing the contour lines of all the main shapes in the illustration. In this case, it is the cliff lines, rocks, and plants.

Once I have that, I create a new layer and add detail to rocks and plants and the line work for the cliff faces. I also drew in the caravan of merchant carts. The carts are in a different layer.

Coloring. This is a rocky mountain pass, so I chose a desaturated brown color. Notice the difference in lighting depending on height.

Now added color to rocks and plants.

To finish the illustration I colored the carts in a different layer. Since this is an RPG map I added a faded grid and notation for height elevation in the different cliffs.

This D&D resource is made free thanks to my paying supporters at Patreon, you can download it here. https://www.patreon.com/posts/156-educated-17132933

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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.