Tackling a new style - Regional

[Boethius61]

So I did a map in the photorealistic style that RobA's fantastic tut produces. I was very happy with the result. I have decided to give another style a try. This is a map for the campaign I am currently playing in. The DM had me mock up a map ages ago for him and now I am going to give him something with a little more polish.

It is meant to be an old fashioned hand draw parchment style.

Finally, before the map - a big thank you to all the brushmakers that have posted their very wonderful tools on this forum. Obviously, without them this map would be mostly blank.
todd.jpg

[Juggernaut1981]

I like the compass rose.
Maybe put some larger borders on the land/rivers? Generally though, I like the look.

Maybe ditch the font and find something more distinctive.

[Boethius61]

Yeah, the font . . .

Went through every font my GIMP has. None satisfied me but that was the best. Got a suggestion? I want it to look hand written and curvy.

[Juggernaut1981]

GIMP gets it fonts from your computer. Just go download more fonts. There are HEAPS in the Resources section.

[Boethius61]

Oooh, good tip.
Thanks

[Coyotemax]

you may want to consider putting a small stroke around the labels, or move some of them around a tad, a few of them are difficult to read ( Dunmore and Nortree being the biggest concerns) due to the black on black nature of the text vs underlying elements.

The tower in the river by Dunsmore looks like it's overlapping, with the riverbank showing through, you may want to consider either erasing the lines under it, of some sort of masking so the tower looks solid I think the rest of the town'castle/etc markers look okay. In the same vein there's a few mountains that look like they are overlapping the same way, i don't know how much of a concern that is for you.

I also notice the forests at the top of the map are very small brushes, and the ones at the bottom are larger - is that an intentional effect? If so, nice, it gives the iso- fill a bit of perspective, neat idea

I like the way you did the water too.. did you scan that in?

[landorl]

It's a nice style and is looking pretty good so far. I agree with what the others have said about the fonts though.

[Boethius61]

I like the way you did the water too.. did you scan that in?

Thanks, I was going for a look like someone just grabbed a pencil and quickly scratched in some lines.

No, I didn't scan it, that was much easier and simpler. It uses one of my favorite tools in GIMP - the ability to use the clipboard as a brush/pencil/airbrush.

All I did was take my pencil on its smallest setting and scratch a few lines (maybe 6). Then I just grab that with the circle select (or square, or lasso - whatever is appropriate). Hit Ctrl-c, then erased the scratches (you could do it in a separate layer or even separate file but I find this is quick and easy). At this point the selection is in the clipboard and appears in my brushes as an option. So I grabbed my airbrush, dropped the opacity to about 75% and fiddled with my scale (these two things vary - you have to play around as always). Then I just sprayed up and down my coastlines (I like to go perpendicular to my clipboard lines with things like this). Finally, toss on a mask at the coast; which, of course, I already had in my channels.

I did about 3 runs at it, fiddling with the scale and opacity, till I got one I liked. Even with the 3 attempts it took less than 5 minutes.

I was pleased with the result.

As for the font, I've been digging through a few thousand downloadable fonts looking for the right one (and picking up some extras). If I find something perfect I will change it up and re submit it. I will fix the hard to read text at the same time.

The tree thing was unintentional - I just messed up and changed my scale. But when it was done I saw the same thing you did - a perspective effect. I liked it so I left it. Just a happy accident.

[su_liam]

Apropos of what Coyotemax said about the text labels, I've found, in Photoshop, that I get my best results with an outer glow in a contrasting, color. If the text blends into the background, the glow will contrast and vice-versa. Perfect. Unfortunately, I can't even figure out how to stroke text in GIMP, so yeah...

[jfrazierjr]

Unfortunately, I can't even figure out how to stroke text in GIMP, so yeah...

Thats easy..

1. On the Text Tool, there is a button named Path from Text. Click that.
2. Create a new layer UNDER the text layer you are working on and select it
3. Switch to the paths dialog and:
   
   • Stroke Path OR
   • Path to Selection and fill the selection with the color of your choice. (I prefer this method much better as it works better if you do a large radius blur)