Thread: Tips of Dwarven Cartographical Styles

Originally Posted by tovette

As an illustrator, I'd suggest when using color for a dwarven map, that straight gray is not a good tone to use with other colors. It's a complimentary color but doesn't hold it's own as a primary tone. Anything in real life that is supposed to be 'gray' is usually in one of two camps when painting something- it's a warm gray or a cool gray. Meaning that there is either a tinge of red or blue/violet mixed in. usually about 15-20% of color. This will give the perception of something that looks gray but really isn't completely flat. It will make your palette look more pleasing to look at.

That is great advice. I remember my art teachers back in the day saying it was better to mix your colors to make black than just use black. Similar reason, it has more eye-play or character. Besides, it's pretty hard to really find something that is absolutely black.

yep - in the printing industry we also work with black and deep black which is more black than black *lol* ... so we use forinstance 100% black and then add up to 100% of either cyan (cold black) or magenta (warm black). Or one could mix a little, as long as the percentages doesn't go higher than what the paper can take. (and yes - that is more than 100%)

More black than black, I like that. Blacker than black, I hit the sack.