I like to aim for a more natural, artistic style with my maps. After a recent computer crash, I've been slowly rebuilding my brushes and presets... and doing a lot of fiddling with settings. In that process of testing new things and getting used to them (which usually includes drawing tons of mountains and/or fantastic creatures) I stumbled across a new, sort of complicated (many layers), way to blend 'wet' media with the paper background. Because it irks me when the ink just kinda sits above it.

Mainly what this particular use of layers, etc does is sandwich the drawing between two paper layers so the ink/watercolor doesn't mask the texture. And some other stuff. So anyhoo, here's what happened. The colored version has my working notes and layer settings. Oh yeah, I use photoshop. I'm not entirely (at all) happy with how the color-wash over the ink turned out (just a flat wash without highlights), but it's somewhat quick and malleable at any rate. I'm sure I'll continue fiddling with everything. I'm stubborn like that, and still not close enough to the real thing to give up. =P

And if anybody has something to share, more tips and tricks or helpful suggestions, please do share them (and an example of what it looks like). Maybe we can create a little go-to corner for different ways to mimic natural media with a computer. =)

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