Traditional Coloring methods?

[ZoraSpringer]

I do traditional maps, now I'd like to know the methods on how you do the coloring. What methods, what tools do you use, and how do you apply them? I really like to learn new stuff, and study new stuff, and everything.

I mostly worked with watercolor pencils, trying to teach myself "normal" watercolor right now, and am - tbh - quite terrified of it. I'd like to know (a) if you use watercolor, how do you use it, so it looks good, what are some methods to make watercolor look terrifyingly good and (b) if you use other methods, what are those, how do they work.

Oh also, maybe you could show the results? That'd be very interesting I think

[Gidde]

Hi Zora, I totally understand how daunting watercolor can be!! (I've been using it a while and it's still scary to me).

My advice is to get one or more sponge(s) to do large areas, especially for a map, since they give a variable coloring rather than a flat wash. For my latest watercolor map I used a natural irregular sea sponge for the ocean. You get nice color variation if you mix a color, dab some with the sponge, then add a little of a different color to just slightly change the hue, dab again. The ocean in that one was a mix of blue and green for the base coat, then I added a bit more green, then I added a teeny bit of red to make a more blue-violet. For detail, get a really tiny brush (I used a 0/0 brush on that one for everything but the ocean) and always blot before painting anything (paper towel wrapping a roll of toilet paper works awesomely as a blotter), so you don't get a big blob of water on your map. I also keep a bunch of scrap paper around me so that I can test the color before I put it on the map for the first time after mixing, adding water, etc.

Edit: I kept the paper as dry as possible throughout, as well. If it started to get too wet, I stopped for the day and started again the next day. Wet-on-dry keeps the edges nice and crisp, and they layer rather than mixing right then and there.

[ZoraSpringer]

Yeah I realized that too. And that I need a dailight lamp. I can mostly only work at night, and I simply can't tell what the color would really look like on broad daylight and then I need to correct and correcting is daunting with watercolor...
I realized that if you want to work officiently using watercolor, you need to have at least two maps in different stages at the same time. Otherwise you'll waste a lot of time, because you need to have stuff dry during which time you cannot work on it.

[Narc]

Hello ZoraSpringer,

I use watercolor for coloring my maps.
I don't use sponge like Gidde but a large brush which absorb much water. To make a sea, for exemple, I prepare my different variations of blue/purple/green on my palette, I humidify with my brush the paper on the areas what I want to paint, and let's go !
You need to keep areas lighter to give relief.

[ZoraSpringer]

You use purple on your maps? O I seldomly use purple for anything on maps . unless my city icons make it necessary. :O It's astonishing to see how differently everybody works! interesting style btw, quite different from what msost peoples maps look like. Love the boat in your banner too.

[MapMappingMapped]

I've still a long way to go, but I'm glad to share a few tips I got along the way -
Plan your map and know what you're doing. I'm saying this now but I can't seem to get this much into practice lol. Unlike digital stuff, watercolour can't be much worked over again, and if you haven't planned your map you end up with a mess.
Don't rush. Unless you want shapeless blobs.
To get a good, clean wash on the sea, I use a mixture of half-paint half-water which I spread carefully around the edges of the map (fat lot of good that actually does me - I always overlap). If it's too shallow, I add another wash on top(you can get pretty cool textures by adding wettish paint on a drying wash,without spreading it everywhere). But be careful, too many washes on the sea and it's mud.
I don't yet have a large round brush, but I recognise that using one would be useful, as in maps which don't have much sea, I always use my medium round brush,which makes it oh so easier than using a flat brush.
If you're doing the linework first, I'd recommend painting the mountains either before the landmass, or painting a wash over both the landmass and the mountains, then painting over the mountains. You don't want to get mountains that have pieces of blank paper around its corners.
Also,I'll just share this little thing... To get a decent land wash, I make one rather wet yellow ochre/brown wash, depending on the opacity I want. For the yellow/ochre, I let it dry, and then either add brown and then green (I usually use Hooker's green as I love it). Brown and green over the yellow ochre will make darker landmass with a textured look, while yellow ochre and then green will keep a light, bright look.
I'll add this, which I've read in a watercolour tutorial book - if it looks right when it's wet, it's wrong.
It is very true that the dried result is very different from what you see when the thing's wet.
Cheers

[Gidde]

Hehehe I'm realizing reading through the other replies that we mappers have as many different techniques as folks who paint watercolor pictures of things. It's kind of refreshing that there's no perfect way