# Community Participation > Mapping Challenge Archive >  September 2016 Challenge: Varenthia

## kacey

I've decided to join my first challenge. I may not have time to finish, but I'm gonna try because I want to make this map regardless of weather I reach the deadline or not. I'm going to use the Cortinarius Archeri palette, I've already happened upon some neat colour combinations by experimenting with different blend modes, and fussing around with the opacity slider, and I'm excited with the results so far.

Just a quick question, it doesn't matter either way, I think I can work it out, but can I use real world textures in this challenge so long as I colour them with the colours from the palette?

----------


## ChickPea

Don't see why not, kacey. There are no real restrictions on what you can and cannot do (assuming you aren't violating someone else's copyright). It's all about trying to follow the criteria of the challenge as closely as you can. So, if you can colour your textures to match the palette you've chosen, there's no reason why you can't use them.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.  :Smile:

----------


## kacey

> Don't see why not, kacey. There are no real restrictions on what you can and cannot do (assuming you aren't violating someone else's copyright). It's all about trying to follow the criteria of the challenge as closely as you can. So, if you can colour your textures to match the palette you've chosen, there's no reason why you can't use them.
> 
> Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.


Thanks for clearing that up ChickPea. Im going to attempt to do some Diamond...esk style shaded relief for my terrain using real world data from naturalearthdata.com , all their downloads are in the public domain, and are free for personal, educational, and commercial use. You dont even need to cite the data, but they have some cool stuff, and I encourage you to check it out.

I dont know if Ill be able to get the result Im looking for with the limited palette, but Ive wanted to try this style for a while. If it doesnt work out Ill just revert back to what I know, and do some hand drawn mountains similar to what Ive done in the previous two maps Ive worked on.

Im a little confused about uploading my images using the WIP hash tag. Do I need to put this in the title before uploading, or do I press the button before I upload? I'm really not sure what to do.

----------


## ChickPea

> Thank’s for clearing that up ChickPea. I’m going to attempt to do some Diamond...esk style shaded relief for my terrain using real world data from naturalearthdata.com , all their downloads are in the public domain, and are free for personal, educational, and commercial use. You don’t even need to cite the data, but they have some cool stuff, and I encourage you to check it out.
> 
> I don’t know if I’ll be able to get the result I’m looking for with the limited palette, but I’ve wanted to try this style for a while. If it doesn’t work out I’ll just revert back to what I know, and do some hand drawn mountains similar to what I’ve done in the previous two maps I’ve worked on.
> 
> I’m a little confused about uploading my images using the WIP hash tag. Do I need to put this in the title before uploading, or do I press the button before I upload? I'm really not sure what to do.


The whole point of the challenges is to try things you haven't done before, so if you're pushing yourself and trying new things, then you're doing it right.  :Smile:  You probably aren't a true member of the Guild until you've completely messed up a challenge haha! (OK, I made that up!!) Sometimes trying new things works out great, other times.... not so much.  :Razz: 

About the WIP button, type any comment you want to make then, in a new line hit the WIP button, then put your image underneath that. The button's really just a shortcut to save typing. Hope that's clear, if not, just ask.

----------


## Diamond

Go go kacey!  Looking forward to seeing this.

----------


## kacey

> The whole point of the challenges is to try things you haven't done before, so if you're pushing yourself and trying new things, then you're doing it right.  You probably aren't a true member of the Guild until you've completely messed up a challenge haha! (OK, I made that up!!) Sometimes trying new things works out great, other times.... not so much. 
> 
> About the WIP button, type any comment you want to make then, in a new line hit the WIP button, then put your image underneath that. The button's really just a shortcut to save typing. Hope that's clear, if not, just ask.


Thank's again ChickPea, I'll try not to mess it up.

----------


## kacey

The first thing I did was try to get a neutral background, so I used the orangy rusty colour which Ive labelled #5, and filled a layer with it. Then I played around with blend modes, and different opacities to see what I could get. I finally settled on setting the blend mode to hard light, and turning down the opacity to 30%,  Then I filled another layer with the same rusty colour, set the blend mode to soft light, and turned the opacity to 21%, this got me a beige coloured base which I thought I could work with... I hope this is an acceptable use of colour from the palette. After that I merged the two layers, and set the opacity to 90% over the white back round. I then had a lighter version of the orangy rusty colour, and because I didnt mix any other colours into it, it hasnt gotten muddy or changed the original colour, just lightened it, I hope thats OK.

After I created the base colour, I added a paper texture, then changed the blend mode to luminosity to make it grey scale so that I didnt introduce any new colours, and turned down the opacity, this made the paper texture a really dumbd down version of the rusty colour #5. After using all these blend modes I thought it was starting to stray a bit from the original rust colour, so in the spirit of the challenge I added another overlay layer, filled it with the pink colour which I labeld #4, and turned the opacity down to 10%...This is how I got the current version of this background without introducing any new colours that werent in the palette already.

I was worried about not having the use of black, but the darkest colour in my palette which I labeld #8 is so dark that I dont have to change blend modes, or add black, its plenty dark just as it is to replace anything I would have wanted to use black for. I did the outline of the checker border with this colour, and filled the dark parts with it as well, only I turned down the opacity to 73%, and added a slight shadow to the whole thing using the same colour...I think Ive said too much, reading this back its starting to look like a tutorial...Sorry for that Ill stop now, just wanted to make sure I was still keeping within the rules, if Im not please let me know.

### Latest WIP ###

----------


## kacey

> Go go kacey!  Looking forward to seeing this.



Thank’s for taking an interest Diamond. I’m hoping to achieve something between you’re signature relief style, and takashi_tk’s The Paths of Saoghal: The Anga nation, with different colours of course, I hope I can work it out.

----------


## Eilathen

Very much looking forward to what you'll come up with, kacey! And if you can unveil your inner Diamond (pun intended), i am sure this map will be awesome  :Wink:

----------


## kacey

> Very much looking forward to what you'll come up with, kacey! And if you can unveil your inner Diamond (pun intended), i am sure this map will be awesome


Thank's Eilathen!

----------


## kacey

I haven’t had allot of time this week, but I finally got my coast line done, and the border is pretty well in place. I still have some work to do on the border, but this is what I’ve got so far. I still need to clean up the edges, and I've done some basic layer effects, but I'm gonna go in, and shade it by hand over top.

I’ve used many blend modes, and the opacity slider heavily, and overlayed layers upon layers of colour to get some variation. I don’t plan on limiting myself to one shade of each colour, I will push these colours to their limit while staying within the rules...I’m loving experimenting while trying to achieve variation, I’ve already learned so much about Photoshop that I didn’t know before. If I can get different colours by layering, mixing, and playing with blend modes then I’ll do it...For me, this is the fun part.

Critiques, tip’s, and suggestions are all welcome. I’d love to know what you all think of where I’m heading so far.

### Latest WIP ###

----------


## ChickPea

That border is *very* pretty! Your land shapes look good too. Really liking where this is going.  :Smile:

----------


## kacey

> That border is *very* pretty! Your land shapes look good too. Really liking where this is going.


Thank's ChickPea, I'm trying to make the border look like rusted metal, but it's not quite there yet, still needs some work, tho I'm learning allot doing it. I've never tried anything like this before so I'm glad you like it.

----------


## kacey

Ive started working on the shaded relief terrain, Ive never tried this style before, and its not done yet. Im gonna add some more texture, take some away, and move it around a bit, but this is my results so far.

The colour is a mix of the pink, and rust, I may lighten it a bit down the road.

I also added a slight drop shadow to the border.

Im wondering if these mountains are looking OK, should I continue in this style, or just scrap it, and go for a hand drawn mountain?

### Latest WIP ###

----------


## ChickPea

> I’m wondering if these mountains are looking OK, should I continue in this style, or just scrap it, and go for a hand drawn mountain?


The mountains look OK but much depends on what you plan to do next. If  you're going to have a lot of other hand-drawn elements, hand-drawn  mountains may be better to maintain consistency. For example, will you include  forests? How do you plan to do those?

----------


## kacey

> The mountains look OK but much depends on what you plan to do next. If  you're going to have a lot of other hand-drawn elements, hand-drawn  mountains may be better to maintain consistency. For example, will you include  forests? How do you plan to do those?


Thank's for the feedback ChickPea. I don't plan on doing any hand drawn style elements in this map, I think that would be inconsistent, like you said. Right now the terrain is really just a base to start off, I'll be adding more mountains tonight when I get a chunk of time to work on it, and then I wanted to add some variation in colour on top of the textured base. I'll probably make forested areas a bit darker I'm thinking, nothing really definite, but I'll have to experiment a bit, like I said I've never tried this style before so it will probably take a few passes to get it right. Right now I'm really just wondering if it's beginning to look even a little bit like the style of mountains that Diamond does that I'm so fond of.

----------


## Diamond

I think that looks pretty good so far.  The one thing that's going to be hard is getting enough color variation with the limited palette to make them stand out and give them depth.  I feel like you're really going to have to layer them (as in, multiple mountain layers combined & set to some sort of blend mode) to get enough body.  But I like it!

----------


## Eilathen

This is looking promising. It will be interesting to see how this turns out...especially in contrast to your other map that has a very different style.

----------


## kacey

> I think that looks pretty good so far.  The one thing that's going to be hard is getting enough color variation with the limited palette to make them stand out and give them depth.  I feel like you're really going to have to layer them (as in, multiple mountain layers combined & set to some sort of blend mode) to get enough body.  But I like it!


Thank's Diamond. I really am struggling to get the mountains to stand out so thanks for the tip, I've been experimenting allot with blend modes like you suggested. I was even able to pull green out of these colours by duplicating the mountain layer, and changing the blend mode, I forget which one did it, and I was tempted to use it, but I wasn't sure if that would be pushing the limited palette a bit far, even tho I never added any new colours. I wound up just adjusting the contrast, and darkening the dark a bit with levels. I'll update when I get my water done, which is a big thorn in my side right now.

----------


## kacey

> This is looking promising. It will be interesting to see how this turns out...especially in contrast to your other map that has a very different style.


Thank's Eilathen, it really is different then anything I've tried before. I'm hoping that the biggest difference will be actually finishing a map for once, I was thinking that joining a challenge might force me into getting something done... tho it's a bit early to tell, there's so much more to do.

----------


## kacey

I got my water in this afternoon, it was really hard to get a colour that worked. I also did allot more work on the mountains, there not quite done but almost, and I changed the border colour a bit, used the light purple with a slight overlay of the rust, and a light version of the rust for the highlights, it stands out better against the land colour now. I did the tail on the R by hand, it's not perfect but I don't know how to do vectors so it's the best I could do. I really wish reducing the size, and changing it to JPEG didn't muck things up so much, it looks much better in the original file, but I guess there's not much I can do about that.

### Latest WIP ###

----------


## Abu Lafia

Wow, these shaded relief mountains look absolutely amazing in my view!  :Smile:  I also like the border elements and the title a lot (good job on the "R" ). The dark water lets the land with the fine mountains shine even more. Keep up the great work kacey!

----------


## snodsy

Love your border, only comment is that the page fold doesn't effect the border, but should?.  Beautiful color and can't say enough about the border, you're not far off with the tail of the R. your landforms are beautiful!

----------


## kacey

> Wow, these shaded relief mountains look absolutely amazing in my view!  I also like the border elements and the title a lot (good job on the "R" ). The dark water lets the land with the fine mountains shine even more. Keep up the great work kacey!


Thanks Abu Lafia, I appreciate the kind words.

----------


## kacey

> Love your border, only comment is that the page fold doesn't effect the border, but should?.  Beautiful color and can't say enough about the border, you're not far off with the tail of the R. your landforms are beautiful!


Thank's Snodsy, I'm not sure I'm even going to keep the folds, I'm partial to this texture, but I'm unsure of weather it really fit's. I may remove the folds, not sure yet what I'm doing there.

I'm so glad you like the border it's reassuring, I spent allot of time trying to get clean lines by hand so I'm glad it's working out, tho I think if I knew how to use something like Inkscape, or Illustrator the border would look much cleaner. I think if I ever do anything like this again I'll have to give those programs a go.

----------


## kacey

Thank's for the Rep comment Carbus, I really appreciate it.

----------


## ThomasR

I love the overall color of the map, the dark seas are great !

----------


## ChickPea

Wow, what a difference since I last checked in! The sea colour is very striking and I love the title.

----------


## kacey

Thank's ChickPea, and Thomrey, I'm so glad you like the dark sea colour. I struggled allot to work it out with this palette, and spent about three hours getting the title right so the nice comments mean allot to me, and help me to keep going.

----------


## kacey

I added some very faint rivers, I used a mix of the rust colour, and the pink with white. They still need major work. I tried using the purples, and the dark rust but they were hideous, and destroyed the look of the terrain, so I thought Id try and make them look as tho theyd been carved out of the ground...Im not so sure about them.

I also added a legend box, it still needs work on the inside edges, and I made up some symbols. I added a few to the border instead of the nails, and Im happy with how they turned out.

I also put in some major region names, I didnt want them to stand out to much, and I wanted them to be seated into the terrain, and I think I achieved that. I used the same light purple with a bit of rust like the border, the layer styles, and black, and white texture are whats making it look a little greyish and metallic.

I also worked on the terrain a little more. Theres still allot to do. I hope to get to work on some labelling next, Im definitely borrowing names from the other map Im working on...I hope thats OK.

### Latest WIP ###

----------


## Mouse

Oh my!  Very beautiful  :Smile: 

I really like the embossed feel to everything, and the coastline is very convincing.

----------


## kacey

Thank's Mouse, I wasn't sure if it was too much.

----------


## Mouse

If you increased it in any way it would look too plastic, but as it stands its just right  :Smile:

----------


## Diamond

You know, I don't know WHY it never occurred to me to do a bevel on the rivers like that.  Genius!  And I love love love your border elements and icons.  Lovely and impressive.

----------


## arsheesh

This is really coming along nicely!  You've done a great job of placing the colors you had to work with.  And I love what you've done with the ornate border, it looks really nice.  One thing I noticed though is that the stone texture you are using for the part of the border is not quite as crisp and clear as the textures in the rest of the map.  It's a small detail really, but I can't help but think that replacing the existing texture with a higher rest stone/granite texture would only further enhance the piece.  Just my 2c.  Great job so far.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

----------


## kacey

> You know, I don't know WHY it never occurred to me to do a bevel on the rivers like that.  Genius!  And I love love love your border elements and icons.  Lovely and impressive.


Thank you so much Diamond. I was really unsure about the rivers, I'm so glad you approve.

----------


## kacey

> This is really coming along nicely!  You've done a great job of placing the colors you had to work with.  And I love what you've done with the ornate border, it looks really nice.  One thing I noticed though is that the stone texture you are using for the part of the border is not quite as crisp and clear a<script id="gpt-impl-0.10291155477546454" src="https://partner.googleadservices.com/gpt/pubads_impl_95.js"></script>s the textures in the rest of the map.  It's a small detail really, but I can't help but think that replacing the existing texture with a higher rest stone/granite texture would only further enhance the piece.  Just my 2c.  Great job so far.
> 
> Cheers,
> -Arsheesh


Thank’s Arsheesh, I really appreciate you’re feedback. I actually adapted you’re geographic icons tutorial for Gimp, and Inkscape into Photoshop to do my icons. I’ve never used embossing before this, or made little gems, and tho I had to do things a little differently to make it work in Photoshop, it was you’re tutorial which made it possible, so I can’t thank you enough!

As for the border resolution problem, I am well aware. It’s been driving me crazy because it only looks that way after resizing to jpeg, and posting it on the forum. My full res PSD does not have this problem, even when I zoom in fairly close. So it’s odd to me that it only effects that part, and I don’t know how to fix it because it’s definitely the jpeg compression causing it.

I took a quick screen shot of my web browser showing my map as I see it through the forum, over top of my actual file in photoshop, I tried to zoom them in on the same spot. I hope you can see what I mean...Keep in mind that this is just a low res screen shot, zoomed right in, comparing the two so my actual file is much more clear, and not so pixelated.



To me this is not a small detail...It’s a big one, because the texture on the actual map looks nice, and clear, and sharp in photoshop, and I’m really happy with it, then when I post it here it looks like garbage.

Do you think that reducing the size even more, and saving it as a PNG before posting could possibly solve this problem? The jpeg compression makes everything look really fuzzy, and I think it really takes away from the quality of the image.

----------


## kacey

I think I fixed the resolution problem on the border texture. I figured out that it was reducing the file size in photoshop causing the blurry texture not necessarily the jpeg compression. I ended up saving the full resolution file as a jpeg, and reduced the quality to 11 instead of 12 to get the file size small enough to post on the forum. The funny thing is, the blurry version is bigger at 9.4mb, then the new more clear version at 6.6mb. Its not perfect, changing it to jpeg still reduces the quality quite a bit, but I think its much better now.

Let me know what you think, is the border texture more clear now that Ive changed it?

### Latest WIP ###

----------


## Meshon

Those borders are fantastic, and the texture is looking crisper. One thing I noticed is that the light seems to be coming from the top of the map but some parts of your border also have highlights on the other side. Are the settings for light direction uniform across those elements? Or is it some sort of reflected light? Either way, this map is coming along really well!

cheers,
Meshon

----------


## kacey

> Those borders are fantastic, and the texture is looking crisper. One thing I noticed is that the light seems to be coming from the top of the map but some parts of your border also have highlights on the other side. Are the settings for light direction uniform across those elements? Or is it some sort of reflected light? Either way, this map is coming along really well!
> 
> cheers,
> Meshon


Thank's Meshon, I appreciate the kind words. The light on the other side of the border is indeed suppose to be reflected light. At first it was an accident when I added a gloss contour to my layer style, but I liked the look of the border more after it happened so I decided to keep it.

----------


## kacey

I've made some headway on the labeling, so I thought I'd do a quick update. 

### Latest WIP ###

----------


## Josiah VE

Somehow I basically missed all the progress on this, but WOW! This is beautiful!
A very interesting palette but you pulled it off spectacularly. The deep purple-ish ocean somehow works so nicely.

----------


## Matthew VE

This is awesome! 
I love the emboss effect and the icons as well, and the border is INCREDIBLE!  :Very Happy: 
The region names almost look like they're engraved into the land, which is very neat!

----------


## Greg

This is an absolutely wonderful piece Katey! The border is beautiful and thematically it works so well. It's hard to spot some of the colours with the heavier textures and what not but I'm sure they are all in there.  :Smile:

----------


## kacey

Thanks Josiah, and Matthew, you're kind words are really appreciated, especially coming from the most talented set of twins on the forum. Josiah, some of you're maps take up a valued spot in my inspiration folder so it means allot to me that you took the time to leave a comment here.

----------


## kacey

> This is an absolutely wonderful piece Katey! The border is beautiful and thematically it works so well. It's hard to spot some of the colours with the heavier textures and what not but I'm sure they are all in there.


Thank's so much GLS. The colours are definitely in there, actually the border is just the lightest purple, it's only the texture, and the rust highlights making it look this way. This has been the fun part of the challenge for me, seeing how far I can push the colours without breaking any rules, and I've learned so much about PhotoShop in doing it. I really appreciate all the support, and encouragement.

----------


## Ilanthar

Just excellent!

----------


## kacey

> Just excellent!


Thank's Ilanthar.

----------


## kacey

Still working on labelling, its taking forever, and started working on some main roads. I didnt want to update again so soon, but Im looking for some critique on the way Ive handled the roads. Im really unsure of how there turning out so Im hoping to get some feedback on them from the community. I dont want them to stand out too much, but I do want them to be visible enough to be useful. Im wondering if their making things look a little sloppy, or taking away from the terrain in some way.

What do you guys think, should I continue on the roads in this fashion, or scratch them, and figure out a better way?

Any feedback would be deeply appreciated, Im feeling a little stuck, and overwhelmed by this project right now.

### Latest WIP ###

----------


## snodsy

Wow, this is so beautiful. Love it. I like the embossed rivers too! On your question about the path, I'd say it depends on the final output size.  At full view it is quite nice at smaller size you loose it a little. You might get a little more red to see it pop, but I do like it.

My only other comment is on the type.  I love typeface and the Cap/Small cap combo, really nice touch, compliments the embossed buttons and rivers.  However I'd work a little on some of the kerning of the Cap to Small Cap transitions. Letters such as V, Y the next letter needs to be a little tighter.   

In your legend, Capital might align better with the icon.

Really great job on this!!!!!

----------


## Falconius

Those big labels look like they're embossed right into the map, it's incredibly enticing.  :0

About the roads I'm not sure, I honestly took them for borders before reading the comment and looking closely.  I think that they are the same time too strong and not really linear looking enough.  As roads they look wrong in comparison with the very subtle rivers.

----------


## kacey

> Wow, this is so beautiful. Love it. I like the embossed rivers too! On your question about the path, I'd say it depends on the final output size.  At full view it is quite nice at smaller size you loose it a little. You might get a little more red to see it pop, but I do like it.
> 
> My only other comment is on the type.  I love typeface and the Cap/Small cap combo, really nice touch, compliments the embossed buttons and rivers.  However I'd work a little on some of the kerning of the Cap to Small Cap transitions. Letters such as V, Y the next letter needs to be a little tighter.   
> 
> In your legend, Capital might align better with the icon.
> 
> Really great job on this!!!!!



Thanks for the critique, and suggestions Snodsy. The final size is 17 by 11 inches, when viewing it at print size the roads are noticeable but subtle.

I dont know anything about kerning, but I think I know what you mean, and Ill definitely fix the problem with the Vs, and Ys, thanks for pointing it out.

I had a tough time with the capitol symbol lining up because of the points, when I align the word capital like you suggested the words for the rest of the symbols dont line up, it leaves a big gap between the first, and second word in the list, Ill have to tinker with it some more.

Thanks again, I really appreciate being able to learn from the people I look up to.

----------


## kacey

> Those big labels look like they're embossed right into the map, it's incredibly enticing.  :0
> 
> About the roads I'm not sure, I honestly took them for borders before reading the comment and looking closely.  I think that they are the same time too strong and not really linear looking enough.  As roads they look wrong in comparison with the very subtle rivers.


Thank's Falconius, I appreciate the honest opinion about the roads, this is what I was looking for. I'm still on the fence about the roads, I may try redoing them one more time, but I may scrap them all together.

----------


## Mouse

Wow!

Well?  What else can a mere mortal say?

----------


## kacey

> Wow!
> 
> Well?  What else can a mere mortal say?


Thank's Mouse.

----------


## DanielHasenbos

Wow, until now I had only seen this map on my phone, but now that I look at it on my computer screen I'm utterly amazed! The labels, relief, icons, colored, everything about this map is truly incredible! 

-Dan

----------


## kacey

> Wow, until now I had only seen this map on my phone, but now that I look at it on my computer screen I'm utterly amazed! The labels, relief, icons, colored, everything about this map is truly incredible! 
> 
> -Dan


Thank's Daniel, I'm so glad you like it.

----------


## kacey

It’s done! I’m sure I could do more, but for now I’m happy to say that this is my very first finished map.

### Latest WIP ###


Disregard the attached thumbnails one, it has rivers, and roads above some text, but I don't know how to remove the picture.

----------


## Meshon

> It’s done! I’m sure I could do more, but for now I’m happy to say that this is my very first finished map.


Congratulations! As to doing more, I think that's always true. Let me paraphrase the words of my first critical theory professor, a delightful Scottish gentleman who tended to answer questions with paragraphs:
"_A good piece of work is never completed, only abandoned at a reasonably coherent point._"

cheers,
Meshon

----------


## kacey

I posted the wrong image in my last post, then tried to fix it, but the thumbnail scrapper is picking up the wrong one so I'm just going to repost the correct one... Sorry about that. I hope this fixes things... Now it's done.

### Latest WIP ###

----------


## kacey

> Congratulations! As to doing more, I think that's always true. Let me paraphrase the words of my first critical theory professor, a delightful Scottish gentleman who tended to answer questions with paragraphs:
> "_A good piece of work is never completed, only abandoned at a reasonably coherent point._"
> 
> cheers,
> Meshon


Thank's Meshon, you're professor sounds like a very smart man.

----------


## Meshon

> Thank's Meshon, you're professor sounds like a very smart man.


I agree, I think I learned a lot about everything from him.

I should have also added: This map has been abandoned at an extremely reasonably coherent point! Very nice work.

cheers,
Meshon

----------


## kacey

> I agree, I think I learned a lot about everything from him.
> 
> I should have also added: This map has been abandoned at an extremely reasonably coherent point! Very nice work.
> 
> cheers,
> Meshon


Thanks again Meshon, and thanks for the rep it's much appreciated.

----------


## Greg

Great work on this, kacey! Gorgeous themes and style here and you really have to love that border!  :Very Happy: 

Can't wait for your next map if this is but your first!  :Very Happy:

----------


## Raven Moon

So I dont have any computer programs nor the skill to use them if I did. Is there a way to do this by hand, a physical color pallet for this?

----------


## kacey

> Great work on this, kacey! Gorgeous themes and style here and you really have to love that border! 
> 
> Can't wait for your next map if this is but your first!


Thanks GLS, and I really appreciate the nice rep comment. I've started many maps, but this being the first I've ever completed, it means allot to me that you like it.

----------


## Greg

> Thanks GLS, and I really appreciate the nice rep comment. I've started many maps, but this being the first I've ever completed, it means allot to me that you like it.


No problem, it's a great pieces and all those unfinished pieces no doubt built towards it!  :Smile:

----------


## kacey

> So I dont have any computer programs nor the skill to use them if I did. Is there a way to do this by hand, a physical color pallet for this?


Hi Raven Moon, Im not quite sure how to answer this. I suppose you could do this by hand if you felt like spending countless amounts of hours on shading the mountains. I used real world data from naturalearthdata.com as a grey scale texture layer. I cut, and pasted my terrain, and spent many hours blending the patchwork Id created.

I dont think it would be too difficult to shade the border, and text elements to get them to stand out using a pencil, or even prisma colour pencils, they have some good metallic colours that look really cool if you spend the time doing many layers to build up the form, and then burnish them, they even have a clear pencil for just this type of thing, youd be surprised how shiny you can get items to appear using prisma colour, they really are fun to play with. You can mix the colours by doing thin layers, and they blend quite well. I did some knot work using them, and was able to make it appear as tho it was raised, if that makes any sense. I dont think drawing that border by hand would be much different, just time consuming, and drawing the tiny gems in the icons with them would be a sure win, in fact, I think I might try it some time...Might be fun.

I dont know what you mean by a physical colour palette? But I think if you know anything about paint...Which I dont, I suppose you could match the colours. I just used the colour palette I chose for the challenge, and used blend modes, opacity, and textures to create variation.

I took a peek at youre profile, youre hand drawn maps are really nice. I think if you have the patients to draw all those tiny buildings, then you might also have the patients to do some shaded relief style mountains by hand. Id definitely be interested to see it.

Sorry if this post is long winded, you just made me think. Id never considered doing anything like this by hand, might be interesting to see someone try.

----------


## ChickPea

Fantastic work, kacey! It looks incredible. And congrats on finishing your first map. What an achievement. You've really made something to be proud of.  :Smile:

----------


## kacey

> Fantastic work, kacey! It looks incredible. And congrats on finishing your first map. What an achievement. You've really made something to be proud of.


Thanks so much ChickPea, I'm just glad I finished when I did because my computer went for a crap yesterday, and now I'm only stuck with my iPad for the next few weeks until my replacement comes in the mail. And btw I did get you're message the other day, but I wasn't able to send one back because it said you're inbox was full, I wasn't ignoring you.

----------


## ChickPea

No worries. I got a system message telling me you'd tried to message me but my inbox was full so I knew you'd responded. I've mostly cleared it out now.

Sorry about your computer. It must be the week for it, since my work PC died too and I've had to order a new one. At least you'll have a shiny new machine ready for your next mapping project!

----------

