Linlandia using Gidde's Hand Dawn tutorial

[hohum]

Hi just wanted to post this for some feedback. I think I finally resolved most of the issues I was having in realizing Gidde's tutorial. I am in the process of working on the map legend.
Linlandia by Hand.jpg

In previewing I see I need to adjust the border glow so it is below the country names.

[Diamond]

That's pretty great looking; I really like the little footprints-as-roads - that's a cool idea.

If there's one thing I'd change, it's that your city placement in the Horde lands looks too regular. It looks like city-planning from the 20th century, not the 10th (or whenever this is supposed to equate to ). The diamond-grid layout looks odd to me.

[tilt]

looks good... however it looks like your political borders are above your text layer which makes the text hard to read at places, so I'd move the text layers to the top

[LonewandererD]

On the subject of the text, in some areas such as the "the" in the Horde of the Plunderer and over some of the other mountain areas is a little difficult to see the brown text of the brown features, maybe adding a lighter outerglow or a white stroke to make them stand out a bit more.

-D-

[hohum]

Thanks for the input. @Diamond: The footprints is straight up from the tutorial, I kind of like it as well. It is just a short dash stroke of the selected road sketch. The cities in the horde are a problem, it comes from it originally being a hex map and having things in the center of the hex. And yes the roads are weird.

@tilt: Yes, as usual I only noticed it after I'd made the jpeg and posted it. It will be my first fix.

@LonewandererD: I will try a few things and see. In the Ink Bleed step the final layer is set to Multiply so the glow around the text became much browner. It was the base parchment color and looked near white before the layer mode change.

[Gidde]

Looks great, hohum! Text over mountains is tough in that style. Try taking your eraser at a low opacity and lightly erasing the mountains until you can see the text a little better (hopefully you saved your layers before the merge).

[hohum]

Here is the tweaked version.

Lin Hand adj.jpg

I moved the border glow layer to near the bottom and raised all the "Ink" layers to the top. I also changed the Ink cop #2 layer mode to normal. Upon closer inspection there is something up with the blurred stroke under both the "the" in the Plunderer and the "of "n League of.

@Gidde: Thanks for the tip. I had also tried using the color technique with white or a lighter color under the text layer in an earlier version, I may try that again. I am at version 10c right now, so I have the unmerged layers somewhere.

For reference, here are the source images:

Hand Sketch of original tile map:

Lindland Hand..jpg

Re-creation from scanned cardboard tiles:

metile linland..jpg

[LonewandererD]

Good work on the improvement on the text, much easier to read now.

-D-

[tilt]

much better now... the thin titles in the mountains are the weakest - but still readable

[StillCypher]

Very nice colors, and I like the simplicity of the style. Will there be a legend?