Tesset Gallí

[ThomasR]

Hi Caenwyr.

First, I'd like to say that I'm really amazed by your map. From the colors to the subtle shading (your riverbanks are the best I've ever seen!), it's almost as if the relief jumps out of the picture ! I'd like to be able to do that and for this goal, your work will be very inspirational. I'd like to ask you one question that's a bit odd. It's about the background you used for the texture. Did you find it somewhere or did you do it yourself ? If you made it, could you share how ?

I'm looking for that kind of grainy feeling but without success. I tried vellum, parchment, woven paper, canvas, canson, car stock, crafts, I can't find this feel.
Hope you can help me.

Thanks for your work, it makes me want to better mine. As soon as I can, I'll rep you for it.

Thomas

[Caenwyr]

Alright! After a week-long skiing trip, I'm happy to announce I'm back to mapping, and glad to be! (although the skiing trip was a helluva lotta fun!!)

First of all my sincerest thanks for all your comments, questions, repping and suggestions. I have learned a lot over the course of this project already, and I'm sure I'm still a long way off anything actually decent... But learning is basically that: accepting that you're not there yet, and taking strength from that realisation to get better. If famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson's expression is at all applicable to mapmaking, I'd say "your first 10,000 maps are your worst." Ten thousand. Whew-ee. Well, I better get going then!

Since this map is a learning experience, I decided to leave any non-horrible mistakes alone. As inspiration for the future, so to say. So I won't be working on the microterrain squigglies anymore, but I do have noted all you guys' remarks and I will certainly apply them to the next maps. Thanks for all your suggestions!

Regarding Thomrey's question:

It's about the background you used for the texture. Did you find it somewhere or did you do it yourself ? If you made it, could you share how ?

I'm looking for that kind of grainy feeling but without success. I tried vellum, parchment, woven paper, canvas, canson, car stock, crafts, I can't find this feel.

Hi Thomas, the texture you're seeing here is actually a mix of all sorts of different parchment and old paper images I found online (freeware, obviously!). Just type in "parchment texture" or "paper texture" in Google Images, be sure to filter them by size (you don't want to be limited to, say, a 1MP background) and pick the ones you like. Then import all of them in Photoshop and blend and play with them until you end up with something you like.

I usually start with a base layer depicting a parchment-y texture without much colour variation (this tutorial is old, but very helpful), and keep adding paper layers with coffee stains and some wear and tear until it feels rough and rustic enough. You'll find a few nice examples of stained paper here, but Google Images is still the best source. Just try to keep an open mind and know that you can just magic unwanted parts away with the flick of a switch. Finally, I also like to apply a vignette to my images, to make sure my corners are nice and dark, so they don't distract from the main object of focus.

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Okay, that was that! I hope I've answered your question, Thomas, and if not, be sure to let me know!

Now that I've taken care of everything that you guys posted over the past week, I'd like to present my newest update, in two variations no less! I've been working on the labeling of the map, but I'm not entirely sure about the colouring scheme. Should I go for one colour for everything, as below?

Teset Gari 19_monocolor.jpg

Or do you guys think it's better to separate the kingdoms from the cities, by using two different colours? One for the borders and the kingdom labels, and one for the city icons and the city labels?

Teset Gari 19_multicolor.jpg

I think I personally like the monocolour version best, but what about you guys?

Next up: framing!