I agree... doodling is an important part of my process as well.
If you ever read my tutorial then you know I love to doodle. I think it's an important process in my art and maps. I doodle a lot, so I thought I would put a thread up so I can post some of my doodles and little test drawings. Enjoy!
farmhouse.png
I was messing around with Leonardo, a very nice little app that draws pretty fast. If you get a chance try it out. I was fairly impressed with it. Anyway, I was also testing out some new top-down buildings so I thought I would share.
Del
I agree... doodling is an important part of my process as well.
Click my banner, behold my art! Fantasy maps for Dungeons and Dragons, RPGS, novels. No obligation, free quotes. I also make custom PC / NPC / monster tokens.
Contact me: calthyechild@gmail.com or _ti_ (Discord) to discuss a map!
Indeed, it also helps me hone not only the basics but new skills as I practice over and over.
Another doodle
temple1.png
I know these aren't technically doodles... but more like thumbnails or something, but a lot of the time I will start off a doodle, like the central column in the back yard of the this temple, and then keep elaborating on the doodle until it turns into something...
Honestly if I posted pictures of my actual doodle pages.... people would go insane. I mean that in a H.P. Lovecraft sorta way, where the longer you stare at the angles that don't make sense it sucks you into a portal of madness. But a good sort of madness... like caramel butternut ice cream on coffeecake sorta madness.
Del
Sometimes I just start a painting by drawing a letter, and then continuing from that basic set of angles and lines and let it turn into something. I have a lot less power over my art than you would think. It just happens if I don't think too hard and keep drawing.
Portal of madness you say...
Maybe we should collaborate someday. Sweet madness sounds kinda fun.
Click my banner, behold my art! Fantasy maps for Dungeons and Dragons, RPGS, novels. No obligation, free quotes. I also make custom PC / NPC / monster tokens.
Contact me: calthyechild@gmail.com or _ti_ (Discord) to discuss a map!
I'm always down for collaboration. I love having people push my imagination into places I wouldn't have otherwise thought about by myself. My world of Azora is something I created, but over the past 35+ years it has grown because of all the players I have had through out my life, each one contributing in some form or fashion to give it a unique feel as they left an imprint on it forever.
My next doodle-ism:
CSstrawhuts.png
Another snippet of my continued fiddling around. This time in Clip Studio. After I finally got the program to recognize my pen pressure, I started playing around with two different version of straw huts. I think the second one turned out far better than I thought with the jagged edges. IDK what do you think?
I'm liking CS better and better after using it a little bit more. Like Leonardo, it does fine line work... I'd have to say I like the lines in both programs more than I do in Photoshop. I did some coloring using watercolor at first...
I'll keep messing around with CS and see how much it grows on me. If anyone else uses CS, please feel free to pass on any tips and such. I do like the control you have over your brushes and pens in this program.
Del
Last edited by Badger; 11-09-2019 at 08:25 AM. Reason: sp err
I love Clip Studio Paint and find it way better to ink in than Photoshop ever was, and its brushes are more flexible for an artist. Here's a free set that's fun. https://www.deviantart.com/serketxxi...-CSP-453039438
Here's another free set I picked up https://www.dropbox.com/s/1yal1vlnio...58u4z.zip?dl=0
And here's a few I made https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fowi3xlv9...DPcsc0v5a?dl=0 One of them (soothing watercolor 4) is a blender, or at least that's what I use it as.
Yeah, the control you have over brushes is pretty amazing.
The second hut does look pretty good.
Click my banner, behold my art! Fantasy maps for Dungeons and Dragons, RPGS, novels. No obligation, free quotes. I also make custom PC / NPC / monster tokens.
Contact me: calthyechild@gmail.com or _ti_ (Discord) to discuss a map!
Thanks for the brushes Tiana, I finally figured out how to import them, so YAY. I like the blender you made too, great job. I used to make brushes in Photoshop, and I had tons of them... but alas, I lost them to a crashed HD. Such is life. As I get more and more used to CS, I am liking it. It's too bad you can't export to psd files ... maybe they will in the future.
Another doodle in CS this time with color and Abstract as well... I call it "Glimpse into Kesh'Kamara" the name of what is basically the Far Realm in D&D terms which is the plane that houses those strange and alien entities such as Azathoth and Cthulu.
Kesh'Kamara.png
As you can see, I'm not much of an artist, but I do like playing around with the CS program, and I look forward to using it for maps. Seems to be easier on my system than Photoshop, which takes huge amounts of ram to use.
Del
GreenGrocer.png
So, I'm still playing around Clip Studio and I'm really digging it. I like the colors and how they handle, I love the line work you can do with it and it's really much easier on my poor laptop. I laid down this little green grocer's house and went a little bit further by adding shading, light and drop shadows to it. I often don't like to make top-down coniferous trees because they often don't look right, but I was really impressed with the ones I did here... they actually look like they might be pine trees (especially with the drop shadow I added). Anyone else have thoughts on those trees? Such a great little program CS is, and way cheaper than anything of Adobe's, so that is always a plus.
Whelp!! Back to the Doodles... More too come!!
Del
The shadows really make things pop I think and are well worth taking the extra time to do.
Anyway I think it looks good although I tend not to favour such heavily saturated colours. But that's more personal preference.
An easy method to do shadows that I use is to do them on their own layer. So you have you land/grass colour on one layer, and all your structures and building colour on another layer. In between, just paint in the shadows in solid black. Then simply lower the opacity of the shadow layer to make them as dark or light as you like.