No worry I didn't take that as a critic, just wanted to set my opinion on this subject which is indeed interesting to debate And I guess Vorro was just asking out of curiosity
Before i became an Illustrator and in the beginning of my Studies, i also heavily mined sources of free material like DA and others. There are very thin lines between copy, appropriation and adaption. What is going further as an illustrator may be reinterpretation and reinvention. In this last ones completely can make them your own. To which degree we choose our lines of work to settle is open.
Nö critic meant, i love your borders, it was more directed in Vorro's direction.
No worry I didn't take that as a critic, just wanted to set my opinion on this subject which is indeed interesting to debate And I guess Vorro was just asking out of curiosity
Cant wait to See your heraldry Layouts. Hope you can progress on this one
Mostly its just curiosity. A lot of times i find the graininess of stock antique elements really sticks out against the harsh perfect lines created digitally (which is why i try to grunge them up where i can) though i also think SK has a point, in that i value self-made elements over stock ones, but (especially when working on commissions to a deadline) thats not always feasable.
I Think the ones youre using here have a good balance of looking classical though without looking too random, in that they look as though they could have been made on a computer.
Nice work as usual. This one, I have a feeling, will garner a Featured Map scroll...
I kind of come down in the middle of the hand-drawn vs. free web art debate. On one hand, drawing your own stuff definitely makes everything hang together, but on the other hand, half the reason I do digital maps in the first place is to relax, and sometimes (a lot of times) I just want to take the easy way. I always vow to do my own elements and then get lazy...
Despite that fact, you spend a lot of time doing realy amazing maps, and i admire your sense of composition. To relax and have fun are important.
Also I agree. This could be a feature candidate
Relaxing is one of the last things on my mind while I'm working on a map, what with my perpetual struggle for the perfect font, kerning, size etc, as well as my constant dissatisfaction with much of what I do. After finishing a map (or anything creative) I usually go through a few stages - 1 I. Can't get enough of it, then... 2 I start finding faults wherever I look... So I think my preference for making everything myself is a way of trying to better myself.
I tend to the two extreme ends of views too, but try to find the balance between having joy of beeing creative and Be concentrated and aim for personal progress in style and skill
Relax guys, the map isn't even started yet But thanks to keep my motivation up!
Back to the discussion, you guys noticed that (at leat I hope) I'm always trying to pay attention to details on my maps. So yea except the "*** I can't draw myself this epic thing I planned to put on the map" - where having no tablet don't really help by the way, mixing hand-drawn stuff along vectors or free material coms to a natural way of doing for me since it keeps a detailed, consistent and original style. As an highlight of this , and without trying to be pretentious, I think using some stuff mountains from Blaue ( still with some work on it) on Lorn's map along with hand-drawn icons/locations/stuff made the thing. I don't think that people looked at it just thinking "this map is crap, it's just some Blaeu's mountains collage/adaptation/copy" or whatever.
*Blaeu's mountains brushes....Hmm Might not be a bad idea to get them back out of dust and use them on this map*
I can give you help to translate the labels in english. I speak both french and english !