Good Day!

[Ilkka]

Good Day,

I found this site through a comment in an RPG blog, and since I'm keen on maps and mapping, I decided to join in order to be able to see all the attachments. I'm glad I did, because there's an enormous concentration of creative talent and artistic insight here.

Myself, I'm an historian, teacher, freelance writer, role-player, and hobby illustrator. I've done a fair share of mapping, mostly with pen & paper. I like things that look hand-finished, without the gloss and shimmer of most fantasy mapping today. I haven't digitalized any of my maps, but in order to share something, here's a photo (of lacking quality) of an old map by me from 1995:



Sorry for those arrows and stuff - I used this one in a presentation.

Rock on!

-ile

[Steel General]

Welcome aboard!

That map looks great, would love to see a scanned-in version of it to take in the full detail.

There are plenty of folks here who also enjoy the 'hand drawn' style, I'm sure you'll find lots of ideas, etc.

[Redrobes]

Yeah looks great and I like hand drawn too tho I am too lazy to do them like it nowadays. Would be good to see some close up sections of that map.

[Gamerprinter]

I love to do hand-drawn maps, especially when I have the time. Though many of my hand-drawn work is more sketchy than refined, like your example. Because of the volume of maps I create, I tend to rely on digital methods. But when I can I almost prefer hand-drawn.

Welcome to the Guild, I'm sure there's much we can learn from one another!

GP

[NeonKnight]

Welcome to the Guild! That is a spectacular map. Looks to be done in colored pencils if I am correct? Still Fabulous!

[ravells]

What a beautiful map! If you could share your techniques in hand drawn maps that would be wonderful! Feel free to post up some tutorials in the tutorial section! Welcome to the Guild!

[Ilkka]

Thanks for a warm welcome.

As it happens, I actually do have some digitally made, finished maps. Will be posting links on the appropriate forum.

I've been planning to scan my hand drawn maps for years, but somehow I never get to take them to a copy shop... Strange.

Looks to be done in colored pencils if I am correct?

You're right. The colours I use are water soluble, although I haven't used the water colour option much because of lacking skills/practice. I have one map in the making I would like to colour with a brush instead of pencil. Time will show if I ever get it done.

If you could share your techniques in hand drawn maps that would be wonderful!

I don't know how to describe or share my technique with inks & colours on plain paper. Pedantism is my chief tool. I work like this:

1) Choose a paper with a preferred texture.
2) Choose good pencils, with quality ink. (I mostly use Pilot and Pigma: Micron, both are Japanese)
3) Practice the markings and styles beforehand.
4) Draw small, so it looks good & solid from a distance.
5) Don't scetch everything ready, let your pen & mind discover the terrain as you work on it. (This is artistic nonsense, but I prefer it. )
6) Add some shadowing for a finish.

But that's banally clear to everyone... Not much to share really.

-ile

[Morshwan]

Such an impressive hand-drawn map. I like it very much.
I am glad to see mad guys like spending so many hours to draw trees !! Did you used a black pen to draw it and after you coloured with pencils? What kind of pilot pencils do you use?

[Gamerprinter]

#4 - I should practice more, good tip.

#5 - this is how I work, myself. I never sketch, or rather I sketch on a separate piece of paper to work-out ideas, but once I begin to draw the actual map, I draw with complete detail in mind, never tracing a sketch, because it isn't there.

For complex geometry of structures with many straight or circular contours, I sometimes "cheat" by creating a solid black on white vector created structural plan on one sheet, then trace with pen on translucent paper (placed over the cheat sheet) to insure straightness of lines or trueness of circular structures, but fill all details without reference.

Excellent tips - not so banal, if you're already familiar with map drawing techniques!

GP

[Torq]

Just to reiterate. Welcome to the guild Ilkka. I'd love to see more of your maps. your style looks very cool, so post often and see ya round.

Torq