The New Kingdom

[Elvish Presley]

Hmmm....

Well, using the tree brush to make layers was both interesting and took far shorter time than I anticipated. But somehow I feel the new forests clash a bit with the rest. I reckon using more than just one tree brush would help, but still.....it looks..."foreign"?



(I spy with my little eye......a complete reworking of the map somewhere on the horizon...)

...argh! My partner just told me the trees look like mushrooms!

[Karro]

Hmmm....

Well, using the tree brush to make layers was both interesting and took far shorter time than I anticipated. But somehow I feel the new forests clash a bit with the rest. I reckon using more than just one tree brush would help, but still.....it looks..."foreign"?



(I spy with my little eye......a complete reworking of the map somewhere on the horizon...)

...argh! My partner just told me the trees look like mushrooms!

The problem, I think, is the line thickness. The trees are made with a very fine line, which contrasts with the much thicker line used in the mountains.

I don't think they look like mushrooms, but as a possible solution, try just one line for the trunks instead of two... Maybe that'll help...

[Steel General]

I din't think they look that bad, maybe a 'splash' of color on the forest canopy would help?

As Karros said the lines are very thin, whenre the lines & shading on your mountains is quite heavy. Just need to find a balance between the two.

[Wag]

I agree that the line thickness is where the disconnect lies. I've personally adopted a "brush building" method to ensure my lines are similar. I always paint a new brush in a new document that is 1" by 1" with a resolution of 600 Pixels per inch. It allows for a large enough canvas to provide adequate detail when using a soft edged brush of between 3 and 9 pixels (or more if you wish.)

When the brush is created it will be created quite large. When you shrink the brush down it provides a nice softness to the brush that aids in a handrawn look.

As far as avoidance of repetitive patterns, that is a little trickier and more time consuming. My recommendation is to not only create one set of trees, but several. Possibly 4 or 5. Combine this with your own handpicked placement and you can avoid much of the repetitive look by simply using the different trees and different layers to make your forest work.

The same can be done with Mountains. Creating two, three, four, or more (like in my case where I made about ten.) Using the same pixel and brush sizes will then lend to that handrawn look.

It can be quite time consuming, but the more resources and brushes you create, the easier mapmaking becomes down the lines because you have a library of content to pull from.

[Elvish Presley]

Lots of good advice here, thanks again!

I've been toying a bit with new brushes now, both mountains and trees. And every time I find myself improving a bit, I just want to go back and redo everything. So I think I'm just going to let this map be the way it is (more or less) and see where I end up the next time I map something

So for now, I just outlined the forests as they were (and put a bit of shades there, tec.). It's not optimal, but at least it looks better than it did at first (I hope):

[Steel General]

I like the green on the forests, it's just enough so set it apart.

[ravells]

Me too. Really nice muted colours (always my favourite!)

[Elvish Presley]

I'm glad the green was pleasing. Personally, I'll settle for knowing it's there, cause I can't actually see it

[ravells]

We shall be the 'white stick' to your colour blindness!

[jfrazierjr]

So for now, I just outlined the forests as they were (and put a bit of shades there, tec.). It's not optimal, but at least it looks better than it did at first (I hope):

Bravo! I say that adding the outline around the trees REALLY made them "pop" and stand out. It's amazing how such a simple thing can really make that much difference(not that it was bad before!) I can't say how much I really like how this one little change helped to make the forests stand out on the map.