Thread: [Award Winner] Assorted tips and tricks

Nice post there, Torstan. I've had interesting effects by duplicating and triplicating the texture photos and then using one of them as an overlay, another a screen and a third a multiply or burn layer. It's fiddly but fun and allows a lot of control over the final result.

Why hasn't this tutorial won an Award yet? Come on people, let's show T some love for offering such invaluable cartographic tips & tricks!

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Thanks Arsheesh I don't think CLs need to worry too much about being given awards, but thanks for the vote of confidence!

Today - forests.

The dark and foreboding wood is a staple of fantasy literature and our own folklore. The Forest looms large in the Grimm Tales - an enemy in its own right. Mirkwood, Fangorn and the Old Forest all harbour ancient powers and perils for the characters of Middle Earth. Without Sherwood forest, Robin Hood would be just another outlaw. Forests are the Wild Other in many stories, acting as borders, sources of mystery and sources of resources and are key to any world map.



Here I've shown two types of forest, coniferous and deciduous, and I'm working in 3/4 view as before.

1. Draw in the outlines of the forests. For deciduous forests, use rounded lines. For conifers, use sharp vertical strokes. Don't worry about keeping the border complete. We're just showing the edge, it doesn't have to be perfect. Make sure the forest flows around hills and mountain edges. The forest's movement will help to delineate the hills and mountains, making them easier to pick out.

2. Add the details. Fill in the areas around the edges of the forest. Try to make sure that lines and features tend to join up horizontally rather than vertically. This will help to sell the 3/4 perspective. Also, make sure you detail forest along ridges and edges. This gives shape and form to your forests, and helps the viewer see the hills beneath the trees. As before, use curving lines for deciduous forest and sharp vertical lines for conifers. If you're doing a black and white map, congratulations! You're done. But if you want colour, read on.

3. Base colours. Here I've shied away from my standard parchment background. Instead I've laid in the base colour on a new layer (under the lines) set to Normal blend, 100% opacity. I used some large grungy brushes with low opacity to build up the colours. You want to start with the lights and then build up to the darks. For the forest, I set colour jitter on the brush settings and added scatter to the brush. This gives a dappled spread of slightly varying greens, which is perfect for selling the varied colours of a forest. I use a yellower green for the deciduous and a bluer green for the conifers. I also take a low opacity dark blue and add a shadow around the base of the trees. It's subtle - but it immediately nails down the forest as a 3/4 view forest with some bulk. It makes a big difference.

4. Colour detail. Here I've added a new layer, with overlay blend mode and 100% opacity. First use dark blue and grungy brush to lay in shadow across the forest. Then I use a very light yellow to pick out the bright highlights on the deciduous forest, and a very light turquoise on the conifers. Again, use rounded shapes for the deciduous trees, and vertical spikes on the conifers.

And we're done!

Here's the psd file for people who want to look at it layer by layer:

Torstan, would you consider linking to your psd files for these tutorials? I don't expect them to be very large, and at least for PS and Gimp users, it might help shed some light into the details, especially if you use multiple layers... Good layer names including whats being down and/or tutorial text reference would he exceptionally helpful if you have the time...

I forgot we were able to upload psd files directly now. I've thrown the psd for the Forests tutorial up. Organising and uploading the older files might take a little time. I'll make sure new posts have the files though.

Thanks!!! after playing with the psd, I would LOVE to see you do some watercolor images. Without the lines is a very nice artisticy image!

Not sure I can get away without my lines! I started playing with a watercolour approach to colouring when I started illustrating the images for my wife's cooking blog. I can't use a parchment background for those! But I do still stick with line art and wash for those.

Originally Posted by torstan

Not sure I can get away without my lines! I started playing with a watercolour approach to colouring when I started illustrating the images for my wife's cooking blog. I can't use a parchment background for those! But I do still stick with line art and wash for those.

Well.. for this last tip, the mountains can easily get away without lines IMHO. The trees can too, but might need "something" to give a bit more volume(more shadows) and perhaps some indication of tree trunks.

Hey Torstan, I hope it's OK with you that I did this, but I wanted a pdf format of your tips and tricks relating to regional maps so that I could have it as a reference when I'm off line. However, I figured I'd upload it here for anyone else who might like it as well.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh