Haunted Forest, Adept (Patreon)

I'm back, and this is the Haunted Forest (35x35)! I can't believe that it's taken me this long to make a simple spooky forest map, it came as a bit of a shock when I saw it suggested by a patron this last week. Honestly, I was very pleased to see it suggested too- it's a great opportunity for me to work on my spookier colors again in a setting I'm particularly comfortable with (forests). If any of you have any ideas for fun spooky maps, please let me know- I'd love to hear your thoughts!

1. Since the concept for this map was so straightforward, a simple stretch of spooky woods, I didn't want to overdesign it. The last thing I would want to do is make it so interesting that it would no longer be a fitting generic map to slip into your average spooky campaign. However, o ensure it wouldn't be too simple, I just drew in a few little rock ledges which I felt wouldn't be particularly unusual in any forest. I was imagining the scene near the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring where the hobbits are hiding from the Nazgul under that little ledge on the side of the road, a location that came across as very spooky and grim. 

2. Forest! Nothing unusual here, just your usual forest things- trees, rocks, and grass. The trees, of course, are from my most recent batch I drew up a couple months ago, while the dead trees are brand new for this map- I felt that the ones I used for last week's spooky map were starting to look a bit ragged (I don't even remember when I originally drew those.. maybe years ago), so it was time to update them a little. I tried not to get too finicky about them this time- I recall agonizing over the previous batch and spending way too much time drawing and redrawing them. This batch came about much more naturally and with significantly less erasing, and if I don't like them in a week then I'll try again, that's all I can do.

3. I know last week I was saying that I was planning on making my next spooky map correctly by starting with the Haunted coloring and adjusting it to make in Unhaaunted, but when it came down to it again I realized that I really shouldn't do it that way- it's simply easier to make a map spooky than the reverse. 

The palette this time, btw, is a bit different than the Haunted Village Ruins, as I expected it would be. I started off with a different base palette, using the Forest Cave Entrance instead of the Forest Portal. This palette feels more right for patches of deep forest, and I predicted that it would pivot into a spooky palette a little easier. I suspect I was right about that, but it certainly doesn't look very similar to the Village Ruins, which is unfortunate. I'm not too hung up on that though, I think you could handwave it away fairly easily in-game as some sort of magic aura which hangs over the ruins in particular.