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Thread: Fishtank Room Battlemap, Hand Inked

  1. #1
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    Post Fishtank Room Battlemap, Hand Inked

    Just for fun and to see how it would go, i decided that I wanted to try and make some full size battle maps using brushed india ink and bond paper.



    I made this map to accompany an adventure I wrote for my friends to play in D&D 4e.


    The only digital elements were the cutting and pasting to cobble the scan together into one image. It was on an 18" by 24" sheet of paper so i scanned eight sections to fit the whole thing into one.

    For making the grid I used a tool called a pounce wheel (which looks like a tiny wheeled spur) to cut a grid of holes into a large sheet of mylar. I laid the mylar over the blank sheet of paper so the holes lined up to form a grid and then sponged/brushed the back of the mylar so that ink would flow through the holes down onto the paper forming a sloppy grid.

    After the ink was dry I free handed he dungeon features in with pencil to get the placement right and then inked the whole thing in various shades of black ink.

    I wasn't trying to be too careful since it was more of a proof of concept thing so it's a little wonky but it's great when I pulled out an actual hand painted map to play on. It took about two hours working on the pre-gridded paper.

    In the future I would go with heavier watercolor paper because the bond paper was too thin for the water I was splashing on. The grid of mylar is like a primitive silkscreen and is just kind of a hassle for what you get. I think next time I would just grid it off with a T-square and pencil and add small brush lines in by hand later.

    (thanks, and I hope this post is proper for the final works section.)

  2. #2
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    Crazy.

    Love it.

    and repped !

  3. #3
    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
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    I love it as well. Have some more rep
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

    Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...

  4. #4
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    Thanks folks, making me blush
    Last edited by Mr. Greengoat; 08-19-2009 at 09:33 PM. Reason: spelling

  5. #5
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Very nice, far beyond anything I could do.

    I dub thee newly repped *bonk*
    My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...

    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.



  6. #6
    Professional Artist Facebook Connected Coyotemax's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Greengoat View Post
    Thanks folks, making me bush
    Just make sure to leaf the windows open.

    **hides**

    Anyhow, this is some darn fine work, I love seeing hand done pieces. And thank you for giving a look at the creative process, it's actually pretty helpful. I was wondering how you did the grid at first glance, while you say the mylar is a bit of a hassle, I absolutely love the effect it gives.

    I've started my own ink brushed piece, though it's 100% photoshop work - but now I'm going to keep yours around as reference so I can get it looking more realistic

    you win!!

    My finished maps
    "...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."

  7. #7
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    Realistic = warped paper with too much water applied.


    To clarify the process:
    To get the grid inked on I took a piece of mylar which is polyester film (plastic sheet that architects used to draw on) and punched holes in it with this little spur-ike pounce wheel and tried to keep the wheel steady with a big ruler.

    This left a grid of punched holes in the mylar. I taped this plastic sheet over the blank paper and sponged ink through the holes onto the paper. It is essentially like a really primitive silkscreen or an advanced stencil. That way I could make a bunch of gridded sheets.

  8. #8

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    Beautiful! It makes me think Call of Cthulhu. I'd really like to see more like this. If you do another one, please do not hesitate to post it.
    Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
    http://www.bryanray.name

  9. #9
    Guild Member DungeonMasterGaz's Avatar
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    Good hand-drawn style. It's almost old skool, and I think it has great atmosphere.

    DMG

  10. #10
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    A fun look and its very clear.

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