Hiya, Adepts! This is the Desert Gorge (50x36), a sandy canyon between two massive rock walls, full of boulders and a variety of desert plants. I like this environment, I feel like it's super cinematic and gets my imagination going. I hope you like your Snowy variant- it started life as a version where I replaced the ground with water but I liked the thought of giant snow drifts a little more, so here we are.
I don't know if it comes across here, but I really wasn't sure about the shapes of the rock walls when I sketched them out here. I mean, I knew I was going to have bit walls on the top and the bottom, but I wasn't 100% sure how I was going to depict them at this size. The little tiered platforms I had drawn in the previous desert maps were small and featured 2-3 levels whereas these are supposed to be a bunch of implied levels and of an unspecified height.. but presumed towering. I made this sketch knowing I was going to have a hell of a time, shrugged, and moved on.
I also was planning on placing an implied path down the middle, just a little shading and maybe a few outlines, but ultimately decided against it as it didn't really feel necessary- if you want this to function as a road then go ahead, I assume my lack of outlines won't effect that. Additionally, I wasn't sure yet what I wanted the shape of the canyon floor to be, like whether I wanted the left side to seem higher than the right or if I wanted there to be a trough down the middle. As always, I left that up to my discretion later in the week.
As I suspected, the outlines for the canyon walls were hell for me. Not pictured here are the several discarded attempts I spent too much time on before I landed on these. None of my previous attempts filled the space right, or maybe they didn't quite depict the height like I wanted, or maybe the ledges didn't feel like they were descending quite right, or the contours looked a bit too orderly or too messy. After I settled on something it wasn't quick work either on account of the size of this bad boy, but that's on me for feeling ambitious.
Thankfully the rest of the map came together quickly afterwards, the rocks and plants are arranged to give that sparse desert vibe I've been loving recently. Surprisingly I probably could add a bunch more plants in order to be more realistic but I think at some point it wouldn't be very believable.
Colors! The desert palette continues to evolve. Last week's map was a little stark but intentionally since I was imagining the Desert Camp to be set on a sort of rocky desert expanse, which I suppose means washed out colors in my mind (don't question the process). This one struck me as a map that wanted warmer colors on account of being framed by these tall, orange walls, so overall I left the lighting significantly more vibrant than the previous few maps. I suspect this is how I'll be handling the rest of these desert maps, each getting the treatment I feel it deserves.