Steampunk-ish political watercolor map

[Chashio]

I love how they look too. I've never used/thought about using them - is it expensive? Messy?

Only messy when your cat jumps on the palette, right Lingon? If you do decide to dabble, the quality of the tools and supplies matters a great deal in the quality of the final picture. But it is worth it... very much so. You can mimic the look of watercolors in a digital format, but the traditional medium is precious, I think, in a way that you can't mimic with pixels and printers.

[Jaxilon]

Going great, keep it up. I've been busy in RL lately but I'm with you on the love of watercolors. I've been experimenting with them a lot lately myself.

[Lingon]

Haha, good thing I don't have a cat I guess!

The price was a little shocking when I first looked, but then one of those small blocks of paint lasts for ages. I have a Winsor and Newton set that has sort of passed down the family, I'm the second generation to use it anyway and I don't think any of the colors have been replaced (though some are almost gone by now), which says something about the quality and life of those paints. W&N are pretty much as expensive as artist supplies get, and if I had bought my paints new I would never have looked at them, but I'm really glad I could inherit a set. When I eventually need to replace some color I'll try a cheaper brand, though there's a risk I've become so used to these posh paints that I won't be able to use anything else!

Brushes stay good for a long time too if looked after well, cleaning them all the time and storing them with bristles up basically, and then there's just the palette left, which is dirt cheap if you buy plastic and can be cleaned and reused for all eternity.

So all in all, there's a start-up cost, and it's rather high if you want top-end stuff, but in the long run it's not an expensive side of the hobby.

@Jaxilon
Thank you!

[AMXPariah]

Have any of you coloring artists used prismacolors?

[Lingon]

I haven't, though I've seen some maps here drawn with colored pencils, so someone else might have. Do you ask because you recommend them or because you want opinions on them, by the way?

[arsheesh]

Wow, I love the way you've captured the light and shadows on the mountain range. This is going to be a lovely map indeed. Can't wait to see the next update.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Lingon]

Thanks Arsheesh!

My multi-tasking plan sorta failed, I haven't put a single brush stroke on this map since I started the challenge entry, but the deadline is approaching and however it goes with my entry I'll continue working on this one soon

[Lingon]

I did a little bit of testing today. First I used G.Projector to draw me a graticule in the equidistant conic projection and laid this over the latest scan, then I painted in some nation borders digitally to see how it would look (I needed the grid first as I wanted some borders to follow latitudes and longitudes). So the below is just a test and will probably change, I'm not happy with all the colors and unsure about the borders, if they seem realistic or not. I'd love to get some opinions on it.


By the way, this area is a colonized region, so the borders are meant to look like they were drawn pretty much all at once by a bunch of negotiating kings sitting around a desk (or something). I'm thinking, maybe there should be more borders drawn along a ruler to give that feeling, like it looks in North Africa and North America. I'd also like to get rid of some borders following mountain ridges, as they sort of hide the mountains I'm so happy with… And finally I don't really like how colorful the map became. Do you think it would be confusing if I just used three colors, and let some countries have the same if they have a different colored country in between?

[Lingon]

A variant:

[rdanhenry]

I like the variant better. Looks more like arbitrary imposed borders. Modern, with more straight lines, it emphasizes that this is not another pseudo-medieval or faux-Renaissance map.