A little advice?

[overwatch]

To be honest, if you are going to be doing anything hand drawn on the computer.. definitely invest in a tablet. Freehand drawing with a mouse is messy and takes forever for good results.

If tablet is out, your best bet is to draw them by hand and scan them in. Once you have your drawing in photoshop follow these steps.

-make a new layer over your sketch
-on this new layer zoom to around 200% and pick a suitable paintbrush.
-trace over your hand drawn sketch with the mouse, at this level of zoom you should maintain a 'decent' amount of accuracy
-delete your sketch layer to complete the process

Extra:
*if you are low on time, define your new mountains as a brush, or duplicate the layer several times
*on a seperate layer beneath your mountains, do any shading, color, or detail so you don't mess up your new linework
*note that if you increase the scale on your new mountain layer, you will get sloppy edges and it wont look clean. As a rule of thumb, try to only scale down, and whenever you scale be sure to retrace over all your mountains to maintain line weight.

[MadLetter]

Hi!

I am feeling similar to you, for I have a great many maps in the making, but abandoned much of them. By now I have a set few ones im trying to finish.

As I am drawing every single map myself by pencil I might simply give you one answer to your question: draw 'em & scan 'em.

I have an example of my style for mountains attatched. I draw them by hand, trying to gain variety while not overdoing it with that variety and then I shade one side of the mounain slightly. Gives you a nice effect on paper and if you go with Photoshop, make the mountains dark brown and give the shaded side either a slightly darker or brighter tone. Looks quite nice, I think.

Just look at the pic's !

Although one work of warning... get a bucket of ice ready. Just like drawing the forests "tree by tree", your hand will hurt like hell >_<

[Arronis]

Or since you are using Photoshop you can always go on DeviantArt.com and search for "old map brushes" and you will probably end up with the brushes I found for my map. It's brushes that are already shaped as elements of a map! Very fun to use!

[industrygothica]

Or since you are using Photoshop you can always go on DeviantArt.com and search for "old map brushes" and you will probably end up with the brushes I found for my map. It's brushes that are already shaped as elements of a map! Very fun to use!

Excellent advice. Going there now.


-IG