Quote Originally Posted by ravells View Post
I really like the way you are approaching this. You're saying things in your first post that it took me years to learn through trial and error (e.g. mixing illustrative with textures). Everything about what you're posting and what you say tells me that you have 'the eye' by which I mean you've groked the right way of approach. Damn, I wish I had it!
Well, I only have low-to-moderate artistic talent, but I am compulsive and detail-oriented which makes up for a lot. LOL! I'm sure your experience is worth a lot more than whatever is up with my eye.

On your colour map, I can't say I'm mad keen about the contour lines but they may be just there for construction and later development.
Any suggestions on what to do instead? I'd like to make it clear that the tower is on top of a hill. I had originally planned on shading it, but at the moment I'm not sure how shading will look with the relatively flat style of the forest and water. I want to stick with that style for a bit since its mostly done with noise, threshold, and selection abuse so its easy to do a lot quick. I may have to try it and see, but any ideas besides shading would be lovely.

Does Gimp support photoshop filters? There are some good ones out there.
No idea, but after I get used to doing this by hand I'll look into it.