Is this done with pencil or on a computer? either way it looks awesome!!
Thats really cool! I've done that looking at mine, but it's never looked that good, I like it better!, blends in so well with the background - love to see the final done this way.
Is this done with pencil or on a computer? either way it looks awesome!!
I tried that once (http://www.cartographersguild.com/at...9&d=1432124722) and it looked ok. Your shading is strong enough to get away with it, but I think it's better with some distinct line, simply because mountains have a distinct and rather sharp edge when viewed from afar. You might try reducing the opacity of the lines, but I'd leave them a little bit of it for stronger definition.Originally Posted by xpian
Really nice work on the shading xpian, the mountains look fabulous. I think you could do without the inked linework and it would look great. However, have you tried playing around with the layer mode and opacity of the linework? I think setting the inked linework to soft light or overlay and playing around with opacity might look really nice.
One critique I have is that the color of the rivers seems to contrast pretty heavily with the color scheme of the rest of the map, which serves to focus one's attention on the rivers. I'd recommend using a lighter hue of blue/green for this color scheme, sort of like this:
Xpian's rivers.jpg
Otherwise this is looking marvelous.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
@Mouldy Catskin - I work primarily on the iPad in an app called ProCreate. I use an Apple Pencil stylus. Then I bring the layered art into Photoshop for further work like adding text and borders.
@snodsy - Thanks! I might try some of these suggestions and make the ink lines very subtle.
@chick - Yeah, if I do get rid of the inks altogether I'll have to sharpen up some of the ridges with cleaner shadows.
@arsheesh - Thanks very much. I'm experimenting with those lines to see what I can do. Thanks for the feedback about the rivers. I'm anticipating that the overall color scheme of the map will change--I just put the parchment down there as a base to build upon--but even so I think the rivers could use a lighter, less saturated shade of blue. I have them on their own layer, so it will be easy.
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Open to cartographic commissions. Contact me: christian [at] stiehl.net
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Hey, that looks pretty fantastic in my book! I'm usually so fast and loose when I bother doing highlights/shadow that I never thought to try it this way. Now I guess you've forced me to experiment...
I have been doing almost all my maps like that for many years especially when light/shadow are to be elaborated.
I find that when one wants a more realistic looking style, it looks much better than a version with lines so can only encourage to experiment farther in this direction. Of course it demands more work and attention because the lines are no more there to help to see sharp transitions.
Quite nice result on the mountains in your map.
Last edited by Deadshade; 02-10-2016 at 03:43 AM.
Beautiful work on the light/shadows... what I expected for such good mountains!
Mountains look fantastic! I prefer them with the linework, but agree with Arsheesh that it would be worth trying to lower the opacity a little.
Really liking how this is developing.
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
Experimenting with some border treatments. I also tweaked the inks a bit...testing that out to see if it still takes away from the look of the light/shadow on the mountains.
Since the novel is fantasy with a subtle steampunk element, I built some gears in Illustrator and brought them into Photoshop. I then freehand drew some wire-like metal lattice-work to lay on top of the gears and hold them in place. I'm planning to put some nuts/screws on top to show where each gear post is. I applied some layer styles to those.
Simultaneously, I want to start working on some gold leaf. The novel's cover seems to have some elements of this, and the "royal" nature of the setting seems to call for it. Starting with a bunch of reference photos, I did a lot of mixing in Photoshop to come up with what's laying on the map right now. The gold leaf layer actually extends across the entire map (it's just being blocked by a layer mask in the middle) so if I want to I can "expose" some of the gold leaf in certain other areas as things develop.
Not sure I like how busy it looks at the moment, so there will be lots of tweaks and modifications as the map progresses. As usual, I thought it might be useful to show the process.
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FEB2016_GoblinEmperor_v05.jpg
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Open to cartographic commissions. Contact me: christian [at] stiehl.net
christianstiehl.com
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