Nov-Dec 2019 Challenge: Ward 42 Smuggler's Map

[aeshnidae]

Hey Jen,

Very nice piece and super cool concept.

Re the burnt text. I’m not sure how you’re doing it but it looks like a low opacity overlay layer which would be my first step as well. Given the texture of the leather you could also add a displacement filter/layer. Check out Butch Curry’s series, Fantasy Cartography in Adobe Photoshop on YouTube. It is excellent! In one episode he talks about using displacement filters to get his roads following the texture of his ‘paper’ and I think it would help your map. Just follow his steps (save your work with a different name first though, you wouldn’t want to accidentally do something you can’t undo��)

I will definitely check that out, thank you! I also found this non-video tutorial about the displace filter and also this one. I had no idea displacement filters existed, so this is awesome info for me.

[damonjynx]

Glad you found the comments helpful. Keep up the excellent work.

[damonjynx]

Hi Jen,

Here is a link to another tutorial that has some additional tips: Spoon Graphics PS Tut

[aeshnidae]

Haven't had much luck with the displacement filter but I just watched the Spoon Graphics tutorial and that will be really helpful, just in general!

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[Ilanthar]

I quite like that "museum" look . Very nice work .

[Kellerica]

Ooh, nice leather texture on the map itself. I'm with Ilanthar, the museum vibe is a great touch!

[Greason Wolfe]

Love the concept on this one. Oh, and the map is looking good too.

[aeshnidae]

Thanks, Ilanthar, Kellerica, and GW! So glad the map is well-received!

I doubt I'll have time to fiddle with it further, so I'm going to call this one done for now. This was an interesting experiment for me and quite possibly the one and only time I'll make a map with stitching. This was hand-drawn in Photoshop. I photographed my leather messenger bag and leather journal to get the leather textures; the frame is also my photo but the red velvet was a free online texture. Font is done by hand but based on Arrr Matey BB. The code is a simple substitution cypher.

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[Marc]

Well done, it’s an amazing original piece of art Jen!

[MistyBeee]

Hehe, I wonder who's the one who stitched it. I can imagine a deep winter night in the wooden longhouse, him sitting by the fire with a bone needle and this piece of leather, the smell of animals, the gentle sounds of the night... carefully picking the colors, adding stitch after stitch, remembering all the details of his visit of the city, wondering if ever the winter finally ends, if he should come there next summer for some more trading, or if he'll sell the precious map to a wealthy traveler and maybe grow his little sheep herd with that extra money... hmm...