MiniTutorial - first part: the pretty colours, base version. (GIMP 2.8.6 is what I used)
The original maps are done as four colour prints: red, blue, yellow and black. If you limit the use of black for outlines only, that leaves you with a palette of seven colours: three base, three mix of two and one mix of all three.
So we do the same for our digital version.
The existing background layer will stay a pure white for now... this is the paper we are going to print on.
I also created a new layer that will act as a template of my map in solid colours (see the first attachment, you may use it as a base for this tutorial to work on)... this is going to help us draw the borders and such later on. The borders do not have to be precise... especially for coasts and islands they can go over your "exact" borders.
Call it "Colour Template", set it to 50% opacity so that we can see the rest of our work later... and hide it for now. I like to have it sitting just above the rest of my layers, so either create new layers below it, or move it around... or whatever suits you best.
1.
Create a layer filled with one solid base colour - this represents the printing surface covered with paint.
Choose some nice, not too saturated red, blue and yellow for the base... though we can tweak that later to our hearts delight.
Optional:
I like to add some little RGB noise to give some small scale variation to the colour: Filters - Noise - RBG Noise: Independent RGB, red, green and blue set to 0.06.
Also, for some large scale variation, I put a cloud layer over it. Filters - Render - Clouds - Solid Noise. The values will depend on the size and proportions of your map. See to it that the clouds are spread out to proportion and that it isn't to small in scale. For the map presented here, size about 1250x1550, I used x-size 3 and y-size 4. Set the layer mode to "soft light" and the opacity to 50%.
Merge the cloud layer down to the colour layer.
2.
Now we repeat this process for the two other colours. You can name the layers "red", "blue" and "yellow" for simplicity's sake.
Set the layer mode of all three colour layers to multiply and you should be faced with a more or less ugly, greenish-yellowish-brown mess.
Next step is the add a layer mask to put down where our "paint" is going to stick to our printing stone. These layermasks - one for each colour - are going to be, ehm, layered... and sadly we cannot use a stack of layers or layergroup as layermask in GIMP. So we have to build it up.
3.
Create a new layergroup and name it "Mask" or "RedMask" (for whatever colour you are working on). Inside this group, there will be three layers.
The bottommost layer will contain the hatching - call it "hatching". Fill it with one of the (very simple) hatching patterns I attached to this post for your convenience (yes, the tiny black and white dots after the big colourful map). Give it a little spread (Filters - Noise - Spread hor:3 vert:3) and add a gaussian blur of 2. (Filters - Blur - Gaussian Blue hor:2 vert:2).
Create the next layer as solid black. Give it a name like "HereBeHatching" or "HBH" or so. It is going to determine where our hatching will be shown. I keep these two layers separate so I can change them independently if the need arises.
Select any areas that will be completely filled with hatching - for example the ocean, if you are working on the blue mask - and fill it with pure white.
Now the boring and repetetive part is going to start. (Don't worry. With a little practice, it is not that bad.)
4.
Switch drawing colour to solid white, chose the "Paintbrush" tool, chose the "Hardness 50" round brush, set size to about 65 and set "jitter" to 0.3
Create a new layer above the "HBH". This is going to be our work layer to draw in all the hatched borders.
Make the colour template layer active, "Select by Colour" one of the areas that will have hatched borders on this colour plane. Switch the worklayer that we just have created, and "Stroke Selection". Choose "Stroke with a paint tool", "Paintbrush". Invert the selection, delete and merge down the layer.
Repeat this process for each colour that will be represented in this colour print - so if we are working on the "red" print, we need to do this for red, orange, grey-brown and yellow-brown. You can speed up the process a little by selecting all areas that do not share a border. (For example, yellow and green or red and orange in the attached map.)
Set the layermode for the "HBH" layer to "multiply". The image should now be mostly black, with all the hatching showing.
5.
Topmost layer in this layergroup will be the "solid colour borders". Create a new transparent layer, called "SCB".
Change the size of your "paintbrush" to about 20.
Create another transparent work layer above it.
Repeat the process from above: select your area, stroke the selection on the work layer, invert selection, delete, merge down... for each colour involved.
Leave the layer mode at "normal".
The image should now show the hatching and the solid borders in white, and all the rest in black. If there is any colour showing, you have some of your other layers shown, most likely the colour template.
6.
Turn off every layer except the three layers in the layergroup. The image should be pure black and white now, showing only the hatching and the solid borders.
Create a "New from visible" layer. This one is going to be our layermask. Make it active and chose "copy".
Select the relevant colour layer. Add a layer mask and select it. Chose "paste", rightclick on the new layer "Floating Selection (Pasted Layer) that has appered on top of your layer list and "anchor Layer". The layer should have been copied into the layermask.
7. Create a new layergroup, now called "BlueMask" (you get the idea?) and repeat the process from step 3 on. And then do it again for "YellowMask".
Congratulations... the colour layers for our map are done.
base_colours.jpg Stripes_diag.jpg Stripes_hor.jpg Stripes_vert.jpg
Reply With Quote