Dreni -- Completed (More or Less)

[RiftKnight]

This is my most recent map that I hand drew. Honestly, I did it rather quickly and I wasn't really looking to use it for anything (just did it for fun). However, considering it is my most recent, I thought it would be a good one to get feedback on!

Typically, I don't draw the pathways and shipping lines (indicated by the dashes), but this was a bit of a test map for it.

It's just a small regional area that I was just practising with. I suppose any advice on general drawing technique as well as landscape features would really be appreciated. Or anything else you'd like to mention. Thanks!

[Lukc]

It looks pretty - I've always had a thing for hand-drawn maps - however, I would suggest a higher resolution scan and a better quality .jpeg encoding, because it's pretty hard to read the labels.

[RiftKnight]

Yeah... unfortunately my scanner is really not good. I did reduce the size of it with MSPaint, so that probably killed the quality a bit too. I'll keep that in mind next time I upload.

[dangerdog15]

Nice map. looks like you spent some time on it. Hand-drawn rocks! I'd go over it with Micron pens or another brand that doesn't bleed or fade.

[RiftKnight]

That's a good idea, actually. I tend to just do them in pencil and then be done with them. I'll try that next time!

[Lukc]

Also, a good idea might be to get some stronger software than MS Paint (GIMP, for example, is free) since it gives you a LOT more options for touching up after you scan.

[RiftKnight]

I actually have GIMP, but never used it much. What sort of options are there for touching up scans?

[maxsdaddy]

Pretty fly for a Dreni... oh sorry that was Drenai. I love the effort put into a hand drawn map. Spice that bad boy up with some color!

[RiftKnight]

Pretty fly for a Dreni... oh sorry that was Drenai. I love the effort put into a hand drawn map. Spice that bad boy up with some color!

I've only ever done one colour map. To be honest, I'm not sure how to colour them all that well.

[Lukc]

Well, to touch up a scan the basic thing you should check are the levels values, where you can adjust contrast, hue and white balance. Then, after that you can manually clean up errors, use sharpen filters to make it clearer and so forth. GIMP is a world of options