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Again, not overkillIf anything that you're doing could destroy something you've already done if you run out of undo states, it should be on its own layer. Unless you like redrawing stuff when you decide it could look a little better
How's this for overkill: the mountains have 5 layers that build up to the effect from the earlier test image.
Basic Outline (upside down V and a squiggly line going down the middle for the light/dark transition area)
Dark Outline, where I darken the edges of the darkside of the mountain
Dark Shading, where I fill in the shadowed portion
Light Detail, where I add in crevasses/etc and give it some texture on the light side
Light Shadows, where I shade the lightside details
And somewhere in there (usually the light detail and light shadows) i throw some bits down along the valleys and lower slopes in the space between one mountain and another to fill in smaller spaces. Some of the larger spaces will be dealt with on the Hill layer groups
There's a mini tutorial somewhere in the Tutorials forum that introduced me to the style.. I added my own twist by separating each step to it's own layer. I can't find it right now though, but I'll take another peek in a bit. I saved the png attachment and keep it open on the second monitor while I work for ease of reference
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
Again, not overkill
The downside is when you're not paying full attention, and put something on a layer it's not supposed to be, and don't notice for 20 mins
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
I do that all of the time...usually I draw for an hour on my layer where I keep my basic palette color choices and when I go to hide that layer to see the thing in its full glory - all of the stuff I just did disappears and I say "crap".
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
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Luckily in this case it's just the main shading layer containing details meant for the lightside detail. If i really felt like putting in the work I could separate things out by cutting to a new layer then merging to the layer it's supposed to be on. But it's not that much so I'm gonna leave it for now I think.
Rough detail work is done, about to start on the fine detail
Oh yeah, another thing.. now that I have a tablet, I'm really missing the callouses I used to have built up from holding pens and pencils back when I did my celtic work
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
Almost finishd the mountains.. I'm actually going back through and filling them in with more peaks to make them more consistent with the test range.
I also decided to play around with the textures a bit, I'm still completely unhappy with them even though I like the idea behind them.
Incidentally, I found a new parchment texture making technique.. after using wax paper on the baking sheets last night, I decided to keep the sheet and scan it. Folded in half it made a great scan.
And I found the original driver for my scanner that allows DPI's other than 150 and 300.. So what I've been doing now is scanning 1/4 of the page at a time at 600DPI, that gives me 5 scans per sheet instead of 1 (4 at 1/4 size and 1 at full). Woot!!
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
Cool. That's a pretty sweet-sounding technique for generating a parchment texture.
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Pimping my worldmap here. Still WIP... long way to go, but I'm pretty proud of what I've done so far...
That's some awesome looking aging you've got going on there!
Ok, the textures are starting to come together, after a write-off day (i'd really love to re-do today).
I think the hills are done, at least the exact placements, but It's possible i may redo them, I'll see i i come up with a solid decision on that before posting for opinions.
Anyhow, it's really starting to pull in the effect at this point. I just have to figure out if there are going to be any labels placed before I start setting in forests.. or maybe I'll place them in right now and redo specific ones if needed.
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
Ok, good to go for forests, so that issue is taken care of. No labels needed.
I'm still not 100% happy with the ocean layer, but it's finally starting to look like I'd envisioned. The texture itself may be okay but I'll likely work it over a bit more - but the main thing to do at this point is likey the colour treatments and depth shading.
The land, I'm very pleased with. I was originally going to remove the terrain layout colour guides entirely, but seeing how they were working with the new texture convinced me I should leave them in. I tossed a high gaussian blur onto each layer, then muddled a bit more with the blending modes, and in some cases added a second layer overtop for colour variations and shadings.
Still not completely sold on the hills, so i'm putting a detail shot to display them and get feedback. there's still some detail work that needs to be done (a few river issues overlapping on mountains, that sort of thing) but here goes nothing. I'm just happy my muse came back from her long weekend
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
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