Looks great Rob... as for swamps ... I've always used a stipple effect ... heavy around the edges of the swamp and lighter towards the middle...
Looks great Rob... as for swamps ... I've always used a stipple effect ... heavy around the edges of the swamp and lighter towards the middle...
Thanks for the suggestion, del - any idea how to stipple with a tablet and graphic software? (Way easier to use a real pen, at least for me...the tablet just isn't fast enough, and keep trying to draw lined through close stipples.)
Here is where I am am. There is supposed to be a large marshy/swampy mixed with hills area north of the range. Not sure if I like this, but it is only my first go..
sized.jpg
I might try printing this out and hand stippling with a pen on tracing paper then scanning it back in as a layer...
-Rob A>
My tutorials: Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional Map ~ All My Tutorials
My GIMP Scripts: Rotating Brush ~ Gradient from Image ~ Mosaic Tile Helper ~ Random Density Map ~ Subterranean Map Prettier ~ Tapered Stroke Path ~ Random Rotate Floating Layer ~ Batch Image to Pattern ~ Better Seamless Tiles ~ Tile Shuffle ~ Scale Pattern ~ Grid of Guides ~ Fractalize path ~ Label Points
My Maps: Finished Maps ~ Challenge Entries ~ My Portfolio: www.cartocopia.com
Try using a standard round brush in Gimp with the spacing ramped all the way up to 200%. That gets you a stipple brush, but I'm not sure how easy it is to get a nice result with it.
The swamps look great, and overall the map is also great looking...
Digital art newb... I think not.
Careful Del, that's how I used to get black eyes when I was younger ...telling girls they had pretty good stipples...
ROFL ..... that was good.... funnier after you read the post again ... and then look at cyphers pic of two hills on either side ... and stipple down below.....
abstact a bit...
I'm now working on forests and can't quite decide the style that would work best.
Here are a few options I have been playing with (variations with and without drop-shadows):
ContactSheet_001.jpg
This needs to be reproducible in B&W for print in a book.
My favorite right now is tree10, but I would like other options...
Please post pointers or samples
-Rob A>
My tutorials: Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional Map ~ All My Tutorials
My GIMP Scripts: Rotating Brush ~ Gradient from Image ~ Mosaic Tile Helper ~ Random Density Map ~ Subterranean Map Prettier ~ Tapered Stroke Path ~ Random Rotate Floating Layer ~ Batch Image to Pattern ~ Better Seamless Tiles ~ Tile Shuffle ~ Scale Pattern ~ Grid of Guides ~ Fractalize path ~ Label Points
My Maps: Finished Maps ~ Challenge Entries ~ My Portfolio: www.cartocopia.com
I prefer to stipple with pen myself... doesn't seem right doing it with PS. Aside from sitting there at the comp doing it one dot at a time, make a stipple brush. I'm not the least bit GIMP knowledged (and barely that with PS) but with PS I make stipple brushes. Keep the spacing way out.. if you just want to place one set of dots at a time, them keep them way spaced out (1000%) so you don't accidently draw a line of black stipple across the map. Keep your size jitter down, your minimum roundness up and your angle jitter on so it will randomly distribute the 'pattern' of dots you use as a brush... I've got several of these stipple type brushes with different settings, amount of dots, and thickness of dots...
I dunno if you can use a PS brush but here's the two I used on this quick swamp sketch. Probably not what your looking for in style.. I was just throwing down some ink real quick... its a bit busy for a swamp I think. but that was the idea behind the stippling effect... In fact, with enough carefully done stippling I don't think you would have to add any type of accent lines to the edge or anywhere else...
edited to add: Also, don't know if it means anything, but I created those two stipple brushes in Illustrator. I only mention it because I'm just now getting the hang of AI and I found it much easier to make the brush in AI and import/paste it into PS to create it... (Shrug) maybe that will be of use to you or not... I found it interesting tho, thought I'd share it.
Last edited by Badger; 05-15-2008 at 05:15 AM. Reason: addendum
Boy - my digital art newbieness slips out....
If I was using the mouse I would have just made a brush as suggested, but my brain is in tablet mode so I think... "Hey I have to draw each dot as a dot..."
-Rob A>
My tutorials: Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional Map ~ All My Tutorials
My GIMP Scripts: Rotating Brush ~ Gradient from Image ~ Mosaic Tile Helper ~ Random Density Map ~ Subterranean Map Prettier ~ Tapered Stroke Path ~ Random Rotate Floating Layer ~ Batch Image to Pattern ~ Better Seamless Tiles ~ Tile Shuffle ~ Scale Pattern ~ Grid of Guides ~ Fractalize path ~ Label Points
My Maps: Finished Maps ~ Challenge Entries ~ My Portfolio: www.cartocopia.com
Says the guy with one... two .... three compass awards ... oh and wait... ahhh... a tutorial award because his tutorial was so great and broke ground for tutorial building enough that they actually _Created_ the award to recognize it....Boy - my digital art newbieness slips out....
seriously tho, sometimes all it takes is a different point of view... me ... I think outside of the box so much... I rarely look inside the box... where the answer usually is...