Worldbuilding and a Sketch

I’m not sure, but I think I mentioned somewhere in one of my blog posts that I’m going to work on my drawing skills.  My goal is to create drawings I can include with my blog posts, of still lifes, landscapes from my stories and eventually, characters, if my skill improves enough.

I figured I’d start with something easy.  I have a general idea of how Yois, one of the countries from the Threads of Magic series, looks.  The village of Chieb, where my characters Toby and Ora were raised, sits near the perimeter between Yois and werewolf territory.

Beyond the quiet village, lay the northern communal fields, some left fallow for the year.  Looming at the edge of the prairie stands an unnaturally straight line of trees.  Evergreens, many which tower easily twenty feet, mark the perimeter between our civilized kingdom of Yois, and the wild beasts of the forest. 

An excerpt from a Yois book on geography

I wanted to draw this, to try and imagine what my characters like Toby and Ora would have seen on days when they traveled to the outskirts of Chieb. 

First I drew a flat map, to help me figure out where things were.

 

 

 

 

From there, I did a pen sketch, still very stylized, just with an eye to where things ought to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s my official sketch, in light pencil.  I realize that will make it hard to see.  My eventual goal is to transfer this to white sketch paper, and start filling in details from there.  I will say, I like how the fence turned out.  The grass and trees I feel I have to work on.  And the chickens.