JonPin, thanks for the link. I've actually seen that already. The issue is that that guy is an incredibly talented artist and I'm ... not!(But thanks for trying to help!)
Abu, thanks for your comment!
And about that ...
I can't leave things alone and I decided to have another poke about. Does it work any better without any line art at all, and just shading? (I banged this out in about 15 mins, so it's not the greatest job.) I guess I want to know if I'm beating a dead horse and should just leave it as it is, or should I try to go with just shading (which I can tidy up and colour a bit).
### Latest WIP ###
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
Ya know ChickPea, I thought your lines were good. I think you just need different lighting and shadow.
I did a bit on your previous lined map to show what I meant.
The cliffs, forest and house need one light direction, which will determine your shadows and highlights.
In my example, I didn't really pick the best direction for the light as it hits too many of the cliffs at a bad angle but I think it shows the intent.
Maybe this will help with that horse.
Artstation - | - Buy Me a Kofi
You're a star, J!
Seriously, this is fab and it's a huge help to have some pointers like this. You can tell I've never had any art lessons because it always astounds me how much of a difference a little bit of light and shade can make. I'll resurrect my cliff linework and give it another go. Trust me to go for cliffs that are facing in who knows how many different directions LOL!
Thank you again for your help. It means a lot that you're so generous with your time, and I'm sure I speak for a lot of people with that thought.
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
It's my pleasure ChickPea.
You are also always helpful with comments and suggestions and I appreciate that too.
Artstation - | - Buy Me a Kofi
Hello! I'm new to the forums and so glad I found this thread. I just downloaded both GIMP and Inkscape and it's always nice to see WIPs done with those programs. I learned quite a bit through following your process, Chickpea, and from all the helpful comments. Your map is looking good and I love the subject of your ambush!
Hi Yu Jie, welcome to the Guild and thanks for your lovely comment.
I'm glad the thread is helping you to learn because it's teaching me loads too (and thanks again to J.Edward for that!!) Gimp and Inkscape are great pieces of software, and even better for being free, though there's definitely a learning curve. There are a lot of great video tutorials on YouTube if you're looking for help, plus there's the tutorial section here on the Guild.
Have you considered taking part in a challenge yourself? The current challenge ends this weekend, but no doubt Bogie will post a new one later next week. I love these challenges (even when I bomb!) because they encourage me to try things that I probably wouldn't have done on my own. I hope you might join in too.
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
Chickpea, I have been here a total of 2 days so far - maybe 3. I hope to participate in a mapping challenge in the future. But for now, my current challenge is to learn how GIMP works. I'm pitting myself against its learning curve. I'm armed with a tutorial though, so we shall see what happens!
Thank you for the welcome! And I shall keep looking through the WIPs in order to learn more about how to do mapping digitally.
Yu Jie, I hope you make some decent progress with Gimp, but it does take time. Tutorials are great for learning the basics, then as your confidence expands a little, you can put your own ideas into them. You can always create a thread in the WIP section of the forum and get some feedback from others once you start to create your own maps. Mostly, I hope you enjoy yourself and don't get bogged down in occasional moments of frustration and self-doubt (that might just be me LOL!) Hope to see you in a future challenge!
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
This is my latest update. I did my cliffs *again* and they're still not great. I ended up lowering the opacity for all the shading while I think about it, so they're quite unobtrusive at the moment. Tomorrow, when I have fresh eyes, I'll probably tweak the shading, or I might not in case I get frustrated and want to put my fist through my monitor instead!
Things still to do:
Glorfindel (there's some, uh, quite interesting stuff on the web about Glorfindel. I was shocked!)
A couple of small bridges in Rivendell.
Add some garden stuff to Rivendell, like flowers & trees. Will only do this if I have time.
Obsess over cliffs and lament my lack of drawing skills!
A few minor touch-ups
### Latest WIP ###
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
I've made some small tweaks since last night and I'd like to do a few more, but I'm not sure if I'll have a lot more time today. I don't want to risk missing the cut-off point, so I'm uploading my latest WIP just in case I don't manage to get online again.
### Winner ###
Last edited by ChickPea; 09-16-2018 at 03:51 PM. Reason: Added Winner tag
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
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