How To Draw Top Down Perspective

How to Draw Mountains - Tiptop Down Perspective

One of the most important features on fantasy maps are the mountains. Not only are they prime existent estate for dwarves and dragons, only they play an important role by impacting political borders, travel, and fifty-fifty weather patterns.

But, they can be challenging to draw in a top down perspective and however go a good sense of scale and depth. While it is much easier to attain this in an Isometric Perspective, there are ways to really make your mountains popular off the page. So let's start mapping!

All the brushes used in this tutorial are available in The Cartographer's Liner Brush Field Kit for Procreate & Photoshop

1: Sketch the Ridgeline

Brainstorm with a couple of elementary curving lines just to go an idea of where the main ridge will be. Y'all can exercise this in pencil, or if you're working digitally like me and so simply keep this on its ain layer.

Use flowing lines with a "C" or "Due south" curve merely don't be afraid to join them together.

2: Draw the Main Ridgeline

Create a new layer and begin inking in the chief ridgeline of the mountains. It's important to notation you are cartoon a series of connected mountains which course a range, not private peaks.

Make sure your line is rather jagged and you are varying the width of the line as you go.

I am using the Crude Molar Brush to ink all the line work for the mountain in this tutorial. It has a bit of grit to bring in a bit of rocky texture.

3: Add the Secondary Ridges

Look for the points forth the main ridgeline and draw the secondary ridges that come up off. Proceed using very jagged lines but take them generally flowing away from the main ridge.

Utilise broken lines equally the ridge flattens out and joins the surrounding terrain. This will assistance it taper into the landscape.

iv: Add a River

At this betoken yous can add a river flowing between the two main mountain ranges.

Make the river wider as it goes since it volition be accumulating water from feeder streams on its journey to the coast.

5: Depict Additional Streams

If you look at a terrain or topographic map of our ain earth, you lot'll notice just how many pocket-sized streams there are in mountain ranges. Even if many of them are simply seasonal.

Anywhere at that place is a low indicate where two ridges come together, there is potential for a stream. You lot do not need to evidence every one, only the largest or most important to your map or story.

6: Cease Detailing the Mountains

Keep adding niggling details to the mountains so they look overnice and rocky. Endeavour to imagine you're drawing lines that follow the way water would catamenia downwards the sides of the mountains if you poured water over them.

But, don't bring the mountain ridges all the manner down to the river. You'll see why in the next step!

7: Detail the Surrounding Terrain

You may take noticed that it can be a petty challenging to tell the difference between a line that's a stream and ane that's just a detail on a mount.

A way to overcome this is to aid the river stand out more by cartoon contour lines that follow the river as if it's cut through the mountains.

You can then add sparse, cleaved lines around the outside of the mountain range to give a sense of contour that indicates foot hills.

Now, it's time to start adding some shading!

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8: Paint Basic Shadows

It'south fourth dimension to really beginning making these mountains popular with some basic shadows. Create a new layer below your line art and choice a colour slightly darker than your groundwork.

Use a relatively soft brush and pigment in some shadows on the side of the mountains facing away from the low-cal source. Exist mindful of your calorie-free direction just information technology doesn't have to be perfect since you're adding surface texture.

I am using the Heavy Marker Castor to block in the shadows and so switching to the smudge tool to blend the edges a little more than.

nine: Deepen the Shadows

At present yous can come back through with a little bit darker shade of brown and paint in some deeper shadows to add together more than depth.

Generally, the darkest shadows should exist near the peaks along the ridgelines. These areas should stand up out with the most corporeality of dissimilarity.

10: Paint in Highlights

Create a new layer and pick a color that is lighter than your background. I personally don't similar using pure white but have opted very a very light and desaturated tan colour.

Like the shadows, the strongest highlights volition also be nearly the peaks along the ridgeline. You lot can also add a pop of highlights to the surrounding foothills to assistance them stand up out…just keep it subtle!

11: Finishing Touches

Yous're almost washed merely at that place are a couple of petty things you can practise to really pull everything together.

Create a new layer and set the blend way to "Saturation" and select the color black for your castor. With a soft brush that yous can control the opacity with how difficult you press, lightly paint over the highest mountains and blend it into the surrounding terrain.

If yous need a little extra contrast then create another new layer and gear up the blend mode to "Overlay". With the same castor as the previous step you can paint over the areas that would exist the most in shadow just to add a little more pop of contrast.

You're all done! If yous found this tutorial helpful be certain tofollow MapEffects on Instagram and tag me with the map yous create post-obit this tutorial and I may characteristic your work! Thank you, and I look forwards to seeing you map your story!

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Source: https://mapeffects.co/tutorials/mountains-top-down

Posted by: brownthisees.blogspot.com

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