First Map, done quickly

[torstan]

Lovely work, and thanks for the tips on the watercolour look.

[Brodiggan]

It's interesting looking at the maps from different dates, you can actually see the style change a bit (not much though). In the map I'm working on, Transylvania, the lighting is from the right on the hills, the hills are a lot more craggy looking (though that might very well be intentional) and the trees are more round - these ones have a bit of definition to them.

Did you use a tablet at all for this? (i so so so need one, lol)

I did use a tablet, nothing too fancy, just a cheap knockoff wacom with some basic pressure sensitivity. Without one, it would have taken much, much longer.

Lovely work, and thanks for the tips on the watercolour look.

Very welcome, I'm happy to share anything useful I've found, though I'm sure there are plenty of people that have stumbled on the same trick in the past. A little extra knowledge never hurts, and maybe the basic technique will give someone else an idea for something even better I can learn in return.

[Karro]

I must know: is this hand-lettered or done with a font. If with font, I must have your fonts! Reveal to me your secrets!

(Also, repped and rated. This is a very nice water-color style. My only critique: it would be nice to see the forest symbols be more varied in appearance and placement. It looks like maybe there are several trees, but for some reason the way they are placed makes them look very uniform.)

[Brodiggan]

I must know: is this hand-lettered or done with a font. If with font, I must have your fonts! Reveal to me your secrets!

(Also, repped and rated. This is a very nice water-color style. My only critique: it would be nice to see the forest symbols be more varied in appearance and placement. It looks like maybe there are several trees, but for some reason the way they are placed makes them look very uniform.)

I did the lettering with a font (a few fonts actually) all freely available from dafont.com, Charlemagne (the directional lettering on the edges and Das Weisse Meer), Deutsche Zierschrift (the gothic block lettering in the Heilegwald title), and DeiGratia for the rest.

I hand drew a set of trees, made a tiling pattern, used the pattern brush to paint on sections of forest, then came back and removed/nudged sections here and there to try and break up the pattern a bit, but I think I should maybe have done a bit more on that. Next time I'm going to try making 2-3 versions of the base pattern, with alternate placements, sizes, and types of trees, layering them all and randomly cutting out layers to up the variety considerably.

[Karro]

I did the lettering with a font (a few fonts actually) all freely available from dafont.com, Charlemagne (the directional lettering on the edges and Das Weisse Meer), Deutsche Zierschrift (the gothic block lettering in the Heilegwald title), and DeiGratia for the rest.

I hand drew a set of trees, made a tiling pattern, used the pattern brush to paint on sections of forest, then came back and removed/nudged sections here and there to try and break up the pattern a bit, but I think I should maybe have done a bit more on that. Next time I'm going to try making 2-3 versions of the base pattern, with alternate placements, sizes, and types of trees, layering them all and randomly cutting out layers to up the variety considerably.

awesome, thanks! I'd rep you for the fonts, but I already repped you for the map, and cannot again for a while.

[IngIngsvar]

That's a very nice map Broddigan. I especially like the legend there.