What are some good hand-drawn mapping tools?

[Wingshaw]

Hi there Nerevar, welcome to the Guild.

After a bit of trial and error, this is what I use to do my mapping:
--regular eraser
--mechanical pencil for sketching and sometimes adding shade
--0.1 Copic Multiliner SP pen for final product
--I also find Photoshop to be a very useful tool for colouring and annotating maps, but prefer paper and pen for the actual drawing and design

This might sound a bit heretical to some people on CG, but I actually think that just about any ball-point pen can work for making a map. Those ones with the four colours are OK. It depends a lot on the level of finish you are going for, how you plan on using the map, and other aspects of your technique (for example, if colouring a map digitally, it is probably best to invest in a quality pen).

If you are interested in developing your artistic abilities, there are plenty of options out there: I don't know about different brands, but watercolours are perhaps your best bet for coloured pencils; just take care you get the appropriate paper, or else your image will start to warp.

Have you got any maps or practice images you're able to share?

THW

[Nerevar]

Thanks for the tips, I don't really have anything worth sharing. Most of my maps are on CC3 so my hand drawn stuff is really sketchy haha

I don't use Photoshop but heard GIMP is a good alternative, so I gotta figure out how to use that.

In the past I've tried using Sketchbook Pro, which doesn't seem bad but I don't hear about it much here so I'm guessing it must not have the same options.

[Deadshade]

This might sound a bit heretical to some people on CG, but I actually think that just about any ball-point pen can work for making a map. Those ones with the four colours are OK. It depends a lot on the level of finish you are going for, how you plan on using the map, and other aspects of your technique (for example, if colouring a map digitally, it is probably best to invest in a quality pen).


THW

I confirm that and don't find it heretical at all. I did quite a few maps with a ball pen only.
The only problem is that one has to be quite sure about what one is doing because eventual erasing takes a lot of time.

But my favorite tools are one hard, one soft pencil and an eraser. There is nothing one couldn't do with that. If one needs color, I find that pastels are excellent for cartography because one rarely needs very precise color zones.
Even if it is easy to do maps with it, I find water color annoying because one has to invest in quality paper to get acceptable results.