Found it!

[ravells]

Don't forget to post your map!

[Chaplaindm]

Real quick. let me get you opinions.

I am looking to make the antique looking maps much like the old Lord of the Rings stuff. I am a writer by nature and that is my passion. Although I LOVE what I see here I really do not want to spend a HUGE amount of time on my maps as I am using simple ones to illistrate my books. I do not need all the color and relief...

I am using GIMP at the moment but I already have CorelDraw and paint Shop Pro. I know I can do what I am looking to do in GIMP but is there an easier program out there for Antique Style maps? Something that is REALLYYYY easy?


Thank You,
Chaplain

[Gamerprinter]

Whether using GIMP and a drawing tablet, or hand drawn with pen and paper that is scanned into GIMP/Photoshop - I think this is the only "best" way to create a Tolkien styled map. While you can use hand-drawn looking brushes of mountains and trees placed using GIMP or similar application, doing it by hand is probably best, fastest, and IMO your only option.

Here is a Tolkien styled map that I recently created...

http://forums.cartographersguild.com...ead.php?t=7450

Is this the style you are looking for? This is hand-drawn and scanned.

GP

[Chaplaindm]

Yes, that is exactly it.

So let me get this straight... first, you hand draw the map features. Then you scan it and import it into GIMP.

So I could hand draw the map with the features I wanted, then scan into GIMP and create the parchment background. Then I could add the text and voila' i'm done?

Call me stupid but I never imagined you could actually combine the two (hand drawn and electronic). I told you I wasn't an artist!

A couple of questions...

1st- Is scale a big issue? Most scanners handle 8 1/2 X 11 so can I just scale it indefinately?

2nd- What art supplies do you recommend for me to use if I take this route. Just a pencil or are there some great tools that can be really helpful?

Thanks!
Chaplain

[NeonKnight]

Ahhhhh....Christian Fantasy. One of the Best I read was To Reign In Hell. In interesting read and as long as it is taken as fantasy and not gospel, should not offend.

Welcome to the Guild!

[Chaplaindm]

My fantasy is much more geared to a younger audience and is more Epic fantasy- good verses evil with clear distinctions. I took a look at the link in your post and the book looks interesting. When I go on Amazon next I may take a look at it. However, I spied on my wife's Amazon cart and I think whe is getting me several new Dragonlance books!

Also (I am going out on a limb here) I am trying as much for quantity as quality. At present, I am trying to push out 4 full length novels a year. It is really discouraging to find good authors that have written only a couple of books. If I can, I want to publish four a year. We will see what happens!

[Ramah]

Four a year? Jeez, I've been working on mine on-and-off for 18 years now.
I cannot get my head around writing four a year unless they are the size of pamphlets.

[Midgardsormr]

Ahhhhh....Christian Fantasy. One of the Best I read was To Reign In Hell. In interesting read and as long as it is taken as fantasy and not gospel, should not offend.

Welcome to the Guild!

I do like Brust, but I haven't tried that one out yet.

Anyway, on the subject of scanning:

You can't get infinite resolution from a scan, but you can get quite a bit. A good scanner capable of 600 dpi can turn an 8.5" x 11" drawing into a ~5000 x 6500 image. Typically you'd want to blur it a bit and reduce it to 300 dpi, though, which would give you 2500 x 3250 image. Since the eventual application would, at most, be a two-page map glued to the inside of a book cover (like the Wheel of Time map), that would be about the right size, anyway.

In any case, you're way ahead of most fantasy authors in wanting an aesthetically pleasing map. Somewhere around here is a thread where we all whine about awful maps we've seen in books.

[Chaplaindm]

@ramah,

I try and write for about 3 hours a day at about 1000 words an hour for my rough draft. At 6 days a week I can often get out about 15 to 18,000 words a week. That equals about 3 1/2 weeks for a rough draft of 65,000 words. I do not edit during this time and work off a pretty extensive outline.

Then I can do my 1st edit at about the same speed. The third edit is pretty fast- primarily just juicing up the wording. However, there are still a lot of mistakes. At that point I save MEGA time by sending it to a professional editing house which edits it for me a forth time. It is sort of expensive but saves me COUNTLESS hours. Also, I do not demand perfection. I am pretty happy with a good book with plenty of action. I am looking more for the old "dime novel" appraoch or the "TV Series" feel then the one time awesome production!

But I am just starting out so we will see how it pans out!

[Rythal]

cool stuff, welcome! I will have to check out this guild, sounds good.