The Argent Sea - Digital Version

[July Finn]

Hi, my name is July! I've been lurking on and off here on the forums for around 15 years under a couple of different user-names, but this is the first time in a long time time that I've posted something truly finished. I hope you'll enjoy!

This map was created for my homebrew fantasy setting of the same name. The Argent Sea setting is heavily inspired by the renaissance era Mediterranean.

The map itself draws inspiration from Italian portolan charts, Magnus' Carta Marina, and a variety of other historical sources.

I originally created this map completely with traditional media, but then decided to re-draw it digitally to make the image cleaner and easier to share. I re-created some of the line art in Adobe Illustrator, using an image-trace to pull in some of the more organic art elements and add to them with several new ones. I then took the line art into Photoshop for color and texturing. It was my goal throughout this process to mimic the style of a woodblock printed map that had been hand-colored, similar to many historical maps from the renaissance and later. I intentionally introduced mistakes, colored slightly outside of the lines, and used a variety of different brushes and altered opacities to give everything as realistic of a feel as I could. This is definitely the closest I've gotten digitally to a true hand-made style, and I'd love to hear what folks think of the result and if they have any suggestions for improving the process.

Argent Sea Distro.jpg

I've been posting about my process as I go over on the Cartographer's Guild Discord server, but if folks are interested enough I'd be happy to create a WIP thread with images of the original physical map and some of my interstitial files.

[wminish]

Hi July, welcome to the guild.

This map is looking great, I really like your use of colour and the overall composition is very good. I love the feature you've made of the large compass rose in the centre of the map as well, it's really striking.

[jshoer]

Hi July, welcome to the guild!

One thing I had to get used to doing on digital maps, even when I was coloring a photograph of a physical map, was adding a background paper or canvas texture. That would really help blend things together; otherwise I think purely digital maps end up looking like there's artificially blank space separating different elements. The right texture could also enhance the "mistakes" you injected, more than varying opacity on brushes does. I'd suggest experimenting a little with different texture images and different layer blending styles on them.

[July Finn]

Hi July, welcome to the guild!

One thing I had to get used to doing on digital maps, even when I was coloring a photograph of a physical map, was adding a background paper or canvas texture. That would really help blend things together; otherwise I think purely digital maps end up looking like there's artificially blank space separating different elements. The right texture could also enhance the "mistakes" you injected, more than varying opacity on brushes does. I'd suggest experimenting a little with different texture images and different layer blending styles on them.

Yeah there is a paper texture on this, but it's quite subtle and I accidentally masked it off from the outer area beyond the border. I tried to keep it subtle because I may at some point have this map printed on some large vegetarian parchment that I have, and I wanted to have a decent idea of what it would look like. If I end up using this more commercially at some point I'll definitely crank up the paper texture and probably play around with a little less subtle weathering as well.

[jshoer]

I tried to keep it subtle because I may at some point have this map printed on some large vegetarian parchment that I have

Ooh -- that makes sense, and definitely post a picture if you do that! I bet it'll look great.

[Naima]

Hi, my name is July! I've been lurking on and off here on the forums for around 15 years under a couple of different user-names, but this is the first time in a long time time that I've posted something truly finished. I hope you'll enjoy!

This map was created for my homebrew fantasy setting of the same name. The Argent Sea setting is heavily inspired by the renaissance era Mediterranean.

The map itself draws inspiration from Italian portolan charts, Magnus' Carta Marina, and a variety of other historical sources.

I originally created this map completely with traditional media, but then decided to re-draw it digitally to make the image cleaner and easier to share. I re-created some of the line art in Adobe Illustrator, using an image-trace to pull in some of the more organic art elements and add to them with several new ones. I then took the line art into Photoshop for color and texturing. It was my goal throughout this process to mimic the style of a woodblock printed map that had been hand-colored, similar to many historical maps from the renaissance and later. I intentionally introduced mistakes, colored slightly outside of the lines, and used a variety of different brushes and altered opacities to give everything as realistic of a feel as I could. This is definitely the closest I've gotten digitally to a true hand-made style, and I'd love to hear what folks think of the result and if they have any suggestions for improving the process.

Argent Sea Distro.jpg

I've been posting about my process as I go over on the Cartographer's Guild Discord server, but if folks are interested enough I'd be happy to create a WIP thread with images of the original physical map and some of my interstitial files.

A veru fine map and nice drawing .

[Narwen]

Looks clean and awesome! I'd like to see more of your map.

[Kellerica]

Already saw bits on Discord, but glad to see the full thing! You did a fine job on this, as I previously have said. I think you hit a really good balance of texture and readability. I love the colours and the layout is very well balanced. Great map, can't wait to see more from you!

[Ifrix]

Hey July, was following this over on the Discord too, I love the 'woodcut' feel of the piece
Looking forward to seeing more from you!