Map Creation II

I scan the maps in two pieces each and puzzle them together in Photoshop. Taking a moment to set the scanner up correctly will save you a lot of work later; I only need to regulate the contrast a little and have nice outlines. Still, I go over every line zoomed in closely to fix up all errors, like smudges and grey areas.
For a first printable version, I put all maps on the same format, add a border and name - and look, a previously mediocre scribble looks totally professional all of a sudden ;)

If you are happy with the map like this, think about using different font-styles for the features, like italic for mountains. Let the names follow the direction of the map feature, but don't put them in too wildly or the map will be hard to read.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fallout X-01 Power Armor Re-design

Image
[english - deutsch unten] Fallout Enclave X-01 Power Armor Re-design. Done for a client who was aiming for a series over time, showing a progression of engineers from the D.C. Wasteland on a more mecha-styled side. I had no idea about that from the job offer, and it was quite the challenge, since mecha isn't exactly my forte ;) But I learned a bit, and appreaciate the Power Armor even more. Although I was personally always partial to the Outcast Power Armor. [deutsch] Ein Redesign der Power-Armor-Rüstung aus Fallout. Der Kunde wollte eine zeitliche Entwicklung zeigen, wie Ödland-Ingenieure die Rüstung mit mehr Mecha-Flair weiter entwickeln würden. Das hatte ich aus der Jobanzeige nicht geahnt und so war es eine ziemliche Herausforderung, weil Mechas eigentlich nicht gerade mein Ding sind ;) Aber die Arbeit daran war cool, und ich schätze die Rüstung jetzt noch mehr; obwohl ich immer eine Vorliebe für die Rüstung der Ausgestoßenen hatte (und vermutlich habe ich alle Namen gr...
Read more

The 9 Circles of Hell

Image
For the upcoming game Hell's Arena, this infographic of hell depicts the nine circles according to Dante's timeless masterwork, the Divine Comedy. The premise was to make it informative but keep it gritty and maybe look for a new way of doing it, so I chose to make the circles themselves the tortured souls - I really had to switch off all empathy reading the punishments, being kept in burning coffins, torn apart and eaten, being incinerated and resurrected into eternity - but according to Dante, it's all fair. Who knows. I looked at a lot of Keith Thompson's work for inspiration, and drew it with pencils on A3 paper before colouring it digitally.
Read more

180611

Image
I've long admired the techniques of Android Jones' colourful abstract portraits and tried something like it myself. I don't yet have Painter 12, which has mirror features - those would have been handy - but did this in Painter 11 with a load of tools I don't always use. I spent the entire morning creating new papers, patterns, and brush features to use - papers are really great to get texture in! I had actually wanted to show a progress .gif of a character painting I did in this style, but it turned out to be several MBs big, so I can't put it here :( You can still see the picture in my deviantart gallery. I used a lot of different brushes here. I'v been thinking about sharing some of my brushes, or brush settings I found useful; I'm not sure if it isn't the particular way I handle them though, that gets me my results. Any thoughts?
Read more