Making a political map

[Ziggoulous]

I'm still new to these forums, so please forgive me if i have posted this in the wrong place.

Hi, I came to these forums after failing to find someone who could make my map, so i decided I would try and do it myself. I'm trying to make a political map of a fictional nation I'm creating called Of Leben. Here's the base:

 

I'm trying to make that into something more like this:

 

I have GIMP and Inkscape as photoshop tools, and Adobe Photoshop's price looks way to steep for me.

I need a lot of help creating this, in fact more like instructions on how to do this. I need all the help I can get and its deeply appreciated.

[Azélor]

It is not too complicated if you know how to use the layers.

1 layer for the land/ocean, they can also be on different layers if it works best.
1 layer for the countries/states. With a pen with plain color not with the brush, colors will be easier to select with the magic wand.
1 layer for roads (in red)
1 layer for rivers
1 layer for lakes, add a stroke effect (darker blue). Gimp should have options for layer were you can add some simple effects. I'm mostly using Photoshop but the 2 softwares have a lot in common.

For labels, use a group or a file to have them all in the same place.

The trickiest part is doing the black line around the states.
The best way I've found to do good borders consist of selecting all the countries at once, adding a border, deselect one country, add another border and do this until all the territories have been made.
I do not know how it's called in Gimp but PS has the Stroke button in the Edition part of the menu. Maybe it's this but I'm not sure http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.c...e-in-photoshop
You want to have the outline centered on each territory so it does not overlap.

Maybe someone has a better technique.

[DanielHasenbos]

Azelor's idea sounds great. The only thing I would do differently is that I would first draw the borders of the states/provinces/duchies etc on their own layer. Once the borders are done I would add a new layer UNDER the 'borders' layer to color the states.

-Dan

[Freodin]

1 layer for each country/state. Actually, it might be easier to draw all the states on the same layer and only when it's done, select each color to make an independent layer, while still keeping the original just in case. With a pen with plain color not with the brush, colors will be easier to select with the magic wand.

Why would you use seperate layers for each country/state? That seems to be a lot of unnecessary overhead to me.

[Azélor]

Why would you use seperate layers for each country/state? That seems to be a lot of unnecessary overhead to me.

I forgot to edit the message after writing the last part.

Azelor's idea sounds great. The only thing I would do differently is that I would first draw the borders of the states/provinces/duchies etc on their own layer. Once the borders are done I would add a new layer UNDER the 'borders' layer to color the states.

-Dan

The main problem with this method is that the area under the borders will have no colors. In my case it can be a problem since I like to know the area covered by each territory for statistical purposes. But if that's not a concern then I guess it's fine.

[Ziggoulous]

I unfortunately do not know how to use layers. I am very unfamiliar with Gimp mechanics.....

Do I use the image above? If so, How do i sue the bursh strokes etc? How do I use the layers? Im a complete noob at the ui of GIMP. My words cant really describe how lost I am here.

[Falconius]

I don't know how to start you off on layers, but on any drawing program, raster or vector, they are of ultimate importance. In the default GIMP layout they are the window to the top right. Basically what layers is, is drawings placed one upon the other to build to a total effect. I honestly recommend you check out some you tube tutorials on what they are and how they work, preferably in your native language. (if not here is a youtube search of it in English, I went through a few of them and they are kind of subpar but should get you through the basics, just go with the first one). Layers are really fundamental to image manipulation on a computer.

[Freodin]

I unfortunately do not know how to use layers. I am very unfamiliar with Gimp mechanics.....

Do I use the image above? If so, How do i sue the bursh strokes etc? How do I use the layers? Im a complete noob at the ui of GIMP. My words cant really describe how lost I am here.

Layers are really important in these kind of projects.
As Falconius said, layers are basically sheets of drawings stacked on top of each other. These layers can be transparent, making it possible to overlay individual elements over others.
This is the basis for so-called "non-destructive" editing: you can draw on top of an element (colour, lines or text) without destroying it. Thus, if you want to change one element, you can easily do so, without having to worry about all the other elements.

How to do that? Basically, there are two ways.
First, there is the "layer" menu, which has almost all operations dealing with layers in it. Simply choose "New Layer" from the menu to add a new layer. A dialogue will pop up asking for more infos about the new layer. Here you can choose name, size and, very important, the fill style.
Choose "transparent" to add a transparent layer.
Second, there is the layer tab... the list that shows all layers. As Falconius said, in default GIMP, it is the window at the top right. It is marked with the icon looking like a stack of white papers.
You can right-click on the layer-icons here to get a context menu showing all the options that you find in the "Layer" menu and do the same operations from here.
Also, you can easily set layers as the active drawing area here. Simply left-click on a layer-icon to make it active. Active layers have a small white border around the icon, inactive layers show a black border.
Most anything you do or draw will only work on the active layer.

Do a little test.
Create a new image from the menu "File / New Image". This will also create a single white layer, called "Background".
Create a new layer, either by chosing "New Layer" from the "Layer" menu or right-clicking on the icon for the "Background" layer and chosing "New Layer" from the pop-up menu. Choose "transparent" for the new layer.

Nothing should have changed on your drawing area now... but there should be a second layer in the layer-tab, and it should be marked with a white border. New Layers get automatically activated.

Choose any drawing tool and draw something. By using all the default values, you should now have a bunch of black lines on a white background.

Create another transparent layer. Change the foreground colour to something vibrant... a nice red for example. Draw something in the new layer.

You should now have a bunch of black and red lines on white background. Depending on which layer is on top, either the red or the black lines will show on top.

You can change the order in which the layers are stacked... most easily by clicking-and-dragging the icons in the layer-tab.

Another thing you can do with layers is to make them invisible. In the layer-tab, next to each layer-icon is a little eye symbol. If you click on that, the layer will be hidden.


This is the very basic stuff about layers. I hope that helped.

[Azélor]

If it makes you feel less noob, I also had no idea what layers were when I started fiddling with graphic software.

Knowing how to use them helps a lot with maps or other art projects. Yet some people can do amazing works with MSpaint single layer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2g5qbvb7F4

[Falconius]

Nor did I. And what I do know now doesn't even really touch the surface, there are still all the layer effects, channels etc. etc. About the most I ever do is play with opacity.