WIP - My first map

[jfrazierjr]

For anyone who cares, I will say that I use the Burn tool like a fiend to darken and lighten up areas. I used the burn tool on 'dodge' setting to lighten up around the coasts. I probably do things the hard way but so long as I get closer and closer to what I want to see I'm happy.

Note sure if you know this or not, BUT my normal workflow for things like this is to NOT modify the original layer, but to create a new layer above set to 50% grey (hex 808080) set to overlay mode and then use the burn/dodge tools there. This allows you to keep the original layer intact in case you want to add some colors, etc. This also helps me at least since many times I end up blurring the dodge/burn layer to get the changes in highlights/lowlights to blend more seamlessly and doing the blur on the original layer instead would hose up the image. This is especially important when you open up a png or jpg file and want to add some high/lowlights. If you were to do the whole thing as a single layer, then the blurring would hose your line work.

The other most used tool for me is 'smudge'. It's almost like sculpting you just keep pushing the paint around. I love it.

My fav tool also....

[Jaxilon]

You just taught me something that will save me a lot of hassle. Thanks for the tip. I remember reading that somewhere but it didn't click until you said it here.

Thanks so much!

[Jaxilon]

Ok, I got back to my forests here. I game them a good work over and may have found an interesting method that may develop into something better for next time. We will have to see.

At least now there isn't that pixelation I had before.

[Ramah]

I like this map. It has a very painterly feel to it which is great. The only thing I didn't like before was your forest but now you've changed it it's thrown up another problem for me and that's your mountains. Even though I really like the style you've used for them they don't tie in with how you've done everything else. You've used iso icons, your forest is viewed from a similar position but your mountains are dead-on top-down. They don't seem to gel with the other elements so to me, either they or your new forest style needs changing.

[Gandwarf]

I love the style of this map, as I stated before.
Also, I am not as bothered as Ramah with the trees/mountains perspective. I think it still works out, although I agree changing the perspective so they match might make the map better.

[Jaxilon]

Yeah, I was asking myself the same thing as I was posting it.

This whole thing was kind of a proof of concept for me and learning the Gimp & Inkscape. While I'm pretty happy with how it turned out I see exactly the same thing.

I may just redo the forest another time and see what happens. I don't think I can really change the mountains and I do like the way they look. (I tried to add trees to them to see if I could tie them in better but they never looked right).

I'll think about this and see what I can come up with.

Ok, here are 2 versions and I'm not sure if either is better Only thing changed is the forest areas.

[Diamond]

Much MUCH better on the forests. I like the looks of the one on the left (the more pine-tree-y one) better, but the one on the right seems to complement the mountains better.

[Jaxilon]

Much MUCH better on the forests. I like the looks of the one on the left (the more pine-tree-y one) better, but the one on the right seems to complement the mountains better.

I think you are right. Individually I like the forest on the left but to go with the mountains I guess the one on the right is better. I still wonder if I could do a "flatter" looking forest if it would look better. I haven't mastered that technique yet.

In my mind I sort of have 3 styles going on in this map which sort of makes it hard to finish. I think I'm done with the mountains because they just took me so much time to get as they are, LOL. I may shelf this project and try a new one at this point to see how I do now that I know a little more about using Gimp. I might actually be able to follow a tutorial now

Thanks for the comments everyone who has helped point things out. Looking forward to next time. Maybe I can even get in on some of the challenges.

[Jaxilon]

Ok, I know it's been 4 months now and I dropped this while I worked on learning more about the digital tools at my disposal. I have learned a bit and even finished a piece or two but in the back of my mind I knew I hadn't finished this one. Probably, because I know this is only a small section of a much bigger map I want to do I feel like I need to put it to rest.

So here it is, I think I'm done unless anyone sees anything glaring that I need to change. I would have just created a finished map but I wanted to get these Kale forests checked out first, LOL, yeah baby, that's Kale!

Oh, I did some mods on the river as well and added the Map legend. Feel free to go nuts but I think I mainly want to archive this one and move on.

### Latest WIP ###

[Ramah]

Hmm, well I reckon you have a problem with your shadows on this. The icons show a very definite light source coming from the top right of the map. But I'm struggling to get that on the mountains. The right forest seems to have a soft shadow to it but the left forest doesn't seem to have a shadow in the small area I would expect one. Your river is the biggest offender though, with most of the shadowing on the left side, in view of the light source and giving it a kind of upward bevelled effect that makes it look to me that it is above the land.

I still really like the painted look you have to the map though.