WIP - The forest's map

[markem]

Well, so much for drawing this past weekend. Saturday wasn't all that bad but I just ran out of steam by around 6:00pm. Sunday wasn't any better. Picked up a friend to go to breakfast and he almost had a heart attack at the restaurant. This guy has already had five heart attacks and I rushed him to the hospital once. Normally an ambulance picks him up. Anyway, he started to pass out. I got him back to his house, on his oxygen, got him back into his bed again, got him to take his meds, made sure he was stable, and then had to leave. So then it was off to move a piano at a house that was about two hours away from where I was. Got there, we got the piano into my truck, took it to Goodwill, got it off of the truck. Drove back the two hour drive. Went to bed at around 2:00pm. Woke up around 10:00pm, decided it was too late to do anything at all and went back to sleep. Hopefully this coming weekend won't be quite so hectic.

For those of you wondering why I don't get more done faster - I am on a 14 work day. To be completely honest - I get up around 5:00am and spend an hour getting ready and to the bus stop. Then I spend two to three hours on the bus getting to work. I work a nine hour day, then get on the bus for the two to three hour drive home. So 1 + 2 + 9 + 2 = 14 hour day. Maximum of 16 hours if the bus goes really slow. So I usually get home, eat something, and go to bed. If I didn't - I probably wouldn't get enough sleep at all. :-/ Not complaining though - just explaining why it is taking me so long to get this done. The players have already gone through this area so I still want to do it but it is not as high a priority as it was. But! NOT abandoning it. I want it for the next time the players have to go here. Because little do they know that.....mmmmmmm.....I don't want to post anymore. One of them might get on here and read what I post. :-)

[markem]

It is time I took this back up again. I spent the last six months recovering from working 16-17 hours a day for a year and a half. On the last of my unemployment - but I'd like to finish this up so I can add it to my collection both here and at home. :-)

[markem]

Ok - I have finally started on this again to finish it. But I'm a bit shakey using my sketch pad (Tooya sketch pad). Here is what I have started with but my main problem is no where to set the pad while I try to draw. (Probably need to throw a bunch of stuff away - but just can't right now.) Anyway, ideas on how to not have a bunch of jaggy lines all over the place?


Maybe after I get more detail into it it won't look so bad. Also, in Photoshop - I am trying to select various parts so I can flood fill it with color (like a nice green for the land areas). But when I try it I just get everything flood filled. I've tried using the lasso and that is better but is there a one-click option to select an area? My problem is that the sketch doesn't go all the way to the edges of the image. The layer I'm drawing on I only drew to where the trees were.

Anyway, any ideas are welcome. :-)

[markem]

Finally finished it. *whew* I recently bought a pen display tablet monitor. It has 2048 levels. Was thinking of doing the 8198 levels but the manufacturer does not support Windows XP. Now all I have to do is to re-figure out how to upload an image.

[markem]

He must have used a standard pencil to make the drawings. That is how you get those wiggly lines that are close together. Then he went over them with watercolors (or whatever). That is how I drew the trees. I am really rather amateurish in doing artwork. Never had a class - just like to draw a bit. More of a computer person though. So a lot of straight lines can come out of what I do. :-/ Oh well - I now have a few graphics programs that will help me to draw. Like Adobe's Fireworks (originally from the people who also made a lot of other great programs - now out of business), Corel's Draw, Serif's DrawPlus and PhotoPlus. A lot of various programs. :-) Anyway - yeah - just drew it by hand with a pencil. :-)

This reminds me a lot of Tolkien's art - not his maps, but his art. I think he worked in watercolor... Here's a page about it, for example: http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01...t-illustrator/

Really curious to see where you go with this.

[markem]

Here is the hidden map part:



Ugh. I've forgotten how to delete the second map. Left off the leaves on it. :-(

Anyway, the background image is a composite. I found free ancient looking paper, then got out my Campaign Cartographer icons, using Visio 2003, I put everything together. Then I made the sandy area, used Campaign Cartographer again for the desert looking graphics, used the fill area part of Visio 2003. Then I put it in to Photoshop version 6 from the 1990s copied/pasted the map onto a 6000 x 6000 72dpi area. Then I resized the image to 3000 x 3000 so it would fit. The sandy looking background around the map is just a plain color from Photoshop. That is how I did it. :-)