Jungle Ruins, Adept & Expert (Patreon)

Hey there Adepts, I'm sorry to say I don't have my usual alternate version of this week's map as this is a commission I made a month ago. I still do have the PSD and outlines-only stuff for you, so no worries there.

I revisited this map to make it Volcanic, check it out here!

1. After chatting with the client for this commission, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to draw. He had sent me some very helpful art for flavor and gave me the rundown of what he would be using it for, an encounter with an ancient black dragon in his lair. With his specifications in mind, I put together of list of features that would need to be involved as well as anything else that I felt would make sense in a black dragon's lair. 

The biggest and most obvious trait was that there would need to be lots of water and a few platforms traveling through it. One of the dragon's lair actions uses the water to grasp at creatures within 20 feet of it, which is pretty brutal in this map (but wouldn't the dragon settle in a lair that they can defend particularly well?).

Beyond that, I wanted to make the map feel like an arena somewhat. The encounter I built around was a final confrontation and arenas feel so dramatic and epic on a large scale. 

2. I probably went too detailed with this map. It took me an awfully long time to get the outlines down, but I can't complain because it looks pretty rad. One side effect of that is I got a little impatient after drawing the platforms and rocks, so the plants are pretty roughly thrown together. I think if I were to sit down and try to improve this map I would redraw the plants and put a little more effort into making the water look more watery. 

I think it's interesting that I made this only a month ago but I can tell that I improved in some ways since then. That's something awesome about putting together a Patreon, it really forces you to develop your art ;)

3. Colors! This is what I meant earlier about making the water look more watery, it seems too smooth and lifeless. I went overboard on the platforms and it left little to no time for the water. Anyway. 

You may notice I took it easy on the shadows. I wanted to imitate the lighting that may come through dense foliage overhead, just an ambient glow lighting everything below. Even if it makes sense, I think it would have looked better if I had just shaded it the way I normally do. 

I feel like I might come back to this one someday, I'm confident I could make it even cooler with a couple more hours of work put into it. It seems like I owe you guys an alternate version of this one anyway, so if you have any ideas of what that should be you should let me know!