The Murky Cellar - A dungeon encounter

[Hexapanther]

Hello,
My first map is now up for view and the actual layout is finished. I made a few changes after a play test - widening some corridors, moving the connection to the natural cave system to a different room.

So the purpose of the map is for the DM/GM to use as an encounter. I am trying to find a style that allows me to somewhat quickly get my ideas out and in a (online) publishable way. Eventually the dungeon will be stocked with descriptions and other relevant information.

My current work process:

1. I first draw the map on grid paper
2. Adding cross-hatching, dyson style (love that effect), although I still need lots of practice
3. Photograph the paper and work with the image in GIMP
4. Crop the image and set to correct image size - no need for a super big image.
5. To get the grid away I am pumping up the brightness +30-40 and up the contrast +60ish.
6. Cleaning the map, removing artifacts where needed
7. Color select black - use the selection in a new layer and fill black.
8. Spray grey along the cross-hatching in a separate layer
9. Selecting white open areas with the magic wand thingy and with all open spaces selected add the GIMP filter RENDER/PATTERN/GRID to get a nice grid. I do fiddle around alot with getting the right offset and grid size (using 70)
10. Add map symbols (compass)
11. Room numbering

And the result is as follows:



I'll be happy to listen to any feedback in order to improve it!

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https://hexapanther.wordpress.com