[GIMP] WIP: My First "Real" Attempt at Subterranean Mapping

[Jacktannery]

Great start Sharpe. Your map has great personality. I like your water but agree that it is very saturated with blue. Water is very hard to do, and i'm terrible at it so can't advise, but there is nothing wrong with your water. If you are aiming for a photo-realistic water, then you will need to desaturate it heavily until only only a trace of blue remains - water in a lit cave like this is very reflective, almost glass-like. If its in the dark the water is black; this can still look good but very dark water depends on really good edges. You can see it in a map of a cave I did for a friend in the Virtual Tabletop/Battlemap Mapping forum, look for 'Heart of Shadow' cavern map.

Other than the water (which I quite like anyway) I think your map is a bit dark. Lighten it up a tiny bit

The key problem on your map is your steps and changes in levels. You have the shading backwards. Take a good look and you will see what I mean. Its wrong - you need to do it again the other way around. This will help make your map come together. Also did you really use drop shadow on this? Don't. Just do it by hand with the smudge tool and the eraser tool. It will take longer but look better.

Eventually, I'll remove the wall texture and use filters to create my own with the help of the tutorial, "How to Blend Textures for Use in Battlemapping with GIMP."

I like your wall texture. In any case, there is an easier and better way. Do not get hung up on textures - textures are the enemy! Seamless, repeating textures are only good when you want to produce a very large number of identical maps. Otherwise, you should not use them. Instead, use google image search to find photos of 'rock close up' .Choose an image (of high resolution) and save it as a .jpg (WARNING - if you plan on selling your map you can't use copyrighted images and should credit all open-source images so think carefully) you like and stretch/crop it on its own layer on your drawing until it covers the whole thing. Then using a layer mask, make it visible only on the walls. Then either desaturate it totally (luminosity) and add a burn layer of pale colour over it at 35% opacity, or adjust the colours, so it works on your map. Then add another layer over it with various opacities of black to make the walls much darker and varied. It's easier than it sounds.

Next, I'm going to add stalagmites everywhere. Then, I plan to blend in some dirt texture (created with filters) on the floor. Not sure exactly how I should do that, I just know one single texture for the whole floor is boring.

Good luck with stalagmites - they are really hard to do. One idea is just little circles of normal wall - I think that looks the best after much trial and error. Whatever you do DO NOT try and use the stalagmite objects other people have made and uploaded for use as .pngs, they look awful.

I'd love to add mist, but I've no idea how to even start with that or how well even an expert could pull it off.

It's easy! Make a new (transparent) layer, FILTER>RENDER>CLOUDS>FOG, change colour to something good like very pale grey, then press ok. Then use a layer mask to remove it from the walls, and change the opacity. The crucial thing with fog is that you need to light and shadow it. To do this, copy the fog layer and apply its layer mask and make this layer invisible. Then make a new 'lighting' layer and with a big fuzzy brush messily draw very pale yellow (eg) overlay highlights over some of your fog. Then add layer mask, and make that mask the copied and applied fog layer. Then do the same for some shadows. Its important to give fog depth otherwise it looks crap.

Dramatic lightning would be great as well, but again, I'm a total newbie with little experience and no talent.

But you are half-way there! Just build it up gently with layers of darkness and light. Advise! Use layers of black shadow set to 'normal' at 50% opacity, and layers of pale orange light set to 'overlay' at 80% opacity. Draw thickly with a fuzzy brush and then use your smudge tool and go crazy, then block out the walls with layer masks. Build up layers of light and darkness, every now and then go out of the room and take a break and return. It doesn't take talent - only patience.

I might break down and add furniture and stuff, but I typically use minis to represent things like that. Also, I have no resources at all, rugs, tables, urns, boxes, books, piles of coins -- none of that stuff. I'd have to spend hours searching for it all.

Overuse of these pre-made objects can lead to disaster - cluttered clashing maps with no sense of style. Avoid if possible.