A Trio of Finished Maps

[Diamond]

Here's some stuff I did over the last few months.

First up is The Middle Sea, a setting where a storm-tossed sea separates some widely divergent cultures:



Then we have The Hrane, where noble horsemen vie with decadent city-states and the insidious spider-magi of Lorkan:



Last is Yrkanith. The mountains are brushes generously donated by Carbus, the cities are by RPGmapmaker. I wanted to try something different here, so have some odd textures, purposely obscure text, etc. Yrkanith is a prototypical sword-and-sorcery world populated by various human states and some non-human species of my own devising. {{edit: uploaded a revised version with a key and some other miscellaneous stuff, including one of Starraven's city brushes & flag}}



(Yes, Eilathen, there is some lore for all of these places. I may even post some of it, someday... )

[Mouse]

Hey Diamond

I like all three of them, but particularly the Middle Sea. There's just something about the warmer colour of this one, and the compass is really beautiful.

I don't really understand what you mean by a brush. Is that like a random symbol generator, or more like a real paint brush - different brushes being used for different general effects?

[Diamond]

Thanks, Mouse!

In Photoshop (and GIMP), a brush is a basically a stamp, created as whatever shape you want. Everything drawn in PS is essentially a brush, in one way or another. Some work just like real paintbrushes, in that you can literally create strokes on the canvas; others are meant to just use as a rubber stamp. Depends on the effect you're after.

[Mouse]

Oh I see! So... can you use all the same brushes in Elements as you can in the more professional versions of PS?

EDIT: Yes - I am considering a future purchase, but don't want to be wasting my money

[Diamond]

I've never used Elements so I couldn't tell you for sure. From what I've heard, it's a stripped-down version of PS. Not a bad thing, necessarily. PS can be vastly overwhelming if you've never worked with anything like it before. I still discover new things about it even after using it for years.

[Bogie]

Nice maps Diamond, all are good, but I also tend to lean towards the colors of Middle Sea.

[Mouse]

Thanks Diamond. I might see if I can download a trial version at some point when I'm not quite so busy.

I know what you mean about continuing to learn about a piece of software. I only recently discovered quite a lot about my 15 year old version of Corel Photopaint when I needed to create some new tree symbols for my CC3 maps - even though the software is so old its starting to fail with Win 10. (the reason I'm looking for alternatives). I've never been able to get on with GIMP.

[FrancescaBaerald]

I really like all three of them, especially the first one!

[Eilathen]

(Yes, Eilathen, there is some lore for all of these places. I may even post some of it, someday... )

Hahaha...thanks, Diamond, that was a healthy start into this day...i laughed But yes, please! You know me well

I like all of them as well. As always, very good composition and landshapes. I wish we had a higher Resolution for the Hrane map! I love the forest in that one...i think that pattern works really well in a b/w map.
The mountains in the Yrkanith map are really cool. The map is too dark for my tastes (i almost can't see it ), though.

All in all, a really epic thread. I love a massive amount of D-goodness to start a map day

If i can, i'll Rep. you.

[Kellerica]

Love 'em, D - especially the 3rd one. I'm a sucker for darker maps, and those mountains by Carbus are something I've always admired (are those brushes available somewhere, by the way?). The texture looks a tad blurry on said map, but other than that, a beautiful piece! I'll rep you if I can!

Oh, and Mouse: I used Elements for a few years, and I can confirm that pro PS Brushes do work on Elements as well.