[Award Winner] Hand-Drawn Mapping (for the Artistically Challenged)

[CarthageCartographer]

I have been following this tut and it has been really helpful so far but I have run into a problem on step 5. Similar to someone earlier in this thread I am not sure what the fuzzy circle 19 brush is. I see four fuzzy circle brushes but the hardness for them increases in increments of 25 and they default to a size of 51. I've tried changing one of them to size 10 but that just seems to make them smaller which doesn't seem ideal for drawing mountains. I think this may be because I'm using a newer version of GIMP. Does anybody have any recommendations of what brush or settings I should use?

[giraffev]

I'm trying to use this tutorial in photoshop. Luckily, Chick converted most of the brushes. However, the horizontal line brush used to shade the mountains wasn't included in that pack. Does anyone know how I can achieve the same result?

[thedarkwinter]

Thanks for the awesome tutorial! Have spent many hours playing/learning/adjusting, and come out with some interesting stuff! I have discovered I am completely unable to generate mountains myself! Are the brushes free to use? I want to do a map to accompany my [unpublished/online] writing...

[KCRileyGyer]

Interesting tutorial. I've only ever used PaintShop Pro (PSP) long before Corel had bought it and have only used it since so I try to see if I can translate such tutorials from one program to the next. Not always so successful.

So, the first thing I did was read it only to be confused by some of it. Last night, I tried part of it but could only do the basics (image 1). There is only so much PSP can do even with a limited understanding of GIMP capabilities. I had already been downloading PS brushes... can they be installed into GIMP at all? If so, how? ...just so I had them on hand to play with even if they weren't the same as the ones used in the tutorial.

Today, being a bunch of firsts, I tried the tutorial in GIMP for the first time and used my new tablet for the first time (image 2). I'm not happy with the rivers so will have to do them again.

Some of those processes I didn't understand while trying it in PSP became clearer in GIMP but I still can't do them in PSP lol.

So, here are my attempts so far and I'll stop gabbing now lol.

[hohum]

This is a great tutorial but I wanted to clarify the bleed process. What do you mean by ink in that step? By that step I pretty much have all of my "ink" merged into one layer. So roads, rivers, cities , all features are "ink" at that point. The bleed also made the hard to read labels even harder to read over features (mountains). I have spent a lot of time bootstrapping Inkscape for the labels, I might just go back to GIMP to rework them, but RobA's link for http://screencasters.heathenx.org/ is a must see if you want to learn how to use inkscape.

[Juggernaut1981]

I used a version of Gidde's Ink Bleed technique on a few of my works now. Duplicate the layer, blur it a few px (5 or less) then set the opacity to somewhere around 50-70%. That makes the ink look like it's gone to the "right place" but "bled" marginally into the paper around it like a good liquid ink would, especially since metal nibs can (and do) lightly mark the paper when they are very fine.
Check out my Big WIP Project Neoseilthir in the Regional/World Mapping section.

[Gidde]

@ Hohum: the method I use for ink bleeding actually depends upon you having merged them all onto one layer (you can do it still separate, but it makes a LOT of extra layers). Basically you name that merged layer Ink, and duplicate it a few times, which makes names like "Ink Copy" etc. If I'm talking about "inking" something, I mean using the Ink tool. If I'm talking about "all the ink" I mean exactly what you just described; all of the black lines/features etc. If your labels are hard to read afterward, you may be forgetting to leave the original ink layer alone (albeit changing opacity/mode); it should still be there showing where the original pen marks were, as Jugg described.

[hohum]

Thanks guys. @Juggernaut, I have been admiring your progress on Neoseilthir. My map is going to be somewhat in that vein. @Gidde, yeah I merged them all so I have it right. It is as I feared, my font choice/ placement etc is what the real issue is. I may just do the labels in GIMP as I am struggling with paths in inkscape. Any how I need to redo my rivers and fix a few city icons. The good part is I save everything so it won't be too hard to back track. I also want to give you kudos for the coloring technique, it looks great. In trying to make my mountain names more ledgible I used that technique using white and it worked except for the bleed layers being on top of it. I hope to post something soon. Oh yeah have some rep.

[yosherl]

Hi!

Please I need some help. Several days I try to do this tut, but everytime I failed
No I'm at the same point as with the last try and I dunno why I'm wrong?

Can anyone have a look at the Screens and help me out??
The first describe what I should do.. and last last 2 screens show what is going on if I try this..



#yosh

[Gidde]

It looks like you either drew a lot of your stuff directly on the background layer, or merged at some point by accident. No worries though, it's pretty easily fixed. Just make ALL of your layers visible, flatten the image, and then set your transparency to ignore any white (Layers -> Transparency -> Color to Alpha -- which will defaut to white so you'll be all set). Looking good so far!