Hello from sunny Western Australia!
Creating:
* digital art
* cartography
* world building
But I dip my toes into anything else that piques my interest along the way
Always happy to talk shop, so leave a comment or question if you're so inclined!
We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams;— World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems.
Your maps are absolutely GORGEOUS!!! Do you have any tutorials on how to follow your workflow? I'm seriously in such awe. What sorts of programs / brushes do you use?
Hey mate, thanks for the kind words! Alas I haven't made any tutorials but my workflow is fairly consistent and easy to explain. I use Photoshop and pretty much just the default brushes, mostly the soft round brush with pressure set to opacity.
Usually each map will have the following layers (lowest to highest). I'll also usually prepare them in roughly this order, at least to start:
Background texture layer (normal) - This is essentially your 'paper' layer, the one you'll be drawing on so you can either make your own or download one with a free-use licence.
Coastlines (normal, 2px hard round black) - For me this is just a guide layer for sketching out landmasses and isn't visible in the final map, although some artists have visible coastlines, so it's entirely preference. Make sure your coastlines connect, as it can be useful later.
Elevation (overlay, mostly using soft round brush, starting large and getting smaller when adding more detail) - all my mountains and hills go here and I only use black and white on this layer (shadow and light). You'll want to pick a spot for where the sun is and draw all your elevation accordingly (e.g. on my maps, my sun is always hanging in the top left, so my shadows always fall to the bottom right. For me, this is the most important layer because it also determines where rivers run, lakes form, rain falls, what grows where, etc. There are so many different elevation drawing styles but the principle in all of them is the same: shadow and light. Where does the sun shine and where does it not?
Colour (overlay, mostly soft round brush) - Almost all your general colour goes on this layer. I'd generally recommend adding colour a little at a time, trying to be consistent (swatch some colours you like so they're always on hand). You can always add more colour. Try to imagine you're colouring in the picture you've already drawn, so try not to e.g. draw more mountains using your colour layer. If you're going for the satellite type of map, then your forests will probably be on this layer but if you're going for the fantasy style they'll be on a layer of their own. Many cartography artists have minimal colour on their maps (not me!).
Rivers and Lakes (overlay, 1px hard round blue) - I keep this layer separate from the colour layer below because otherwise it's a mess trying to change the course of the river or adjust the edges of a lake. No matter the size or length of the river, I usually start with a 1px brush size and then draw over larger rivers with a larger brush.
Oceans (overlay) - Usually this ends up being 2-3 overlay layers on top of each other until I find the 'right blues' for the map. You can chunk colour in here to start and then tease out colour where you want it (around coastlines, islands, etc.). Just be careful not to draw on your colour layer as it can look obvious and messy when there's overlap. It's not perfect at the edges, but you can use the magic wand selection tool on your coastlines layer (as long as there are no gaps in your coastlines) to select everything outside them and save a bit of time.
Roads (normal, 2px light brown/grey) - Nothing much to explain here! Just make sure they make sense in terms of geography.
Clouds (normal, random brushes, low flow) - The blur tool is your friend here. Clouds come in all shapes and sizes but in general, you can plonk anything down from any brush and then just use the blur tool to sweep it in one direction or another. You can use multiple layers to simulate different levels of clouds. Less is more here: don't conceal your hard work with clouds. I generally have more clouds over the ocean for this reason.
Labels (normal, text) - Pick a font you like and be consistent in where your labels go and how they look. E.g. all towns should be the same size font, all oceans should be the same size, etc. Putting a subtle glow on your text layers can make them pop a little, as with icons below.
Icons (normal) - Same as with labels, consistency is key, although some experienced artists produce custom icons for important cities, etc. Icons can be extremely time consuming so don't be afraid to just use conventional map markers like dots, stars, squares, larger dots, circled dots, for towns, capitals, forts, cities, etc.
Any extra map features, like borders, compasses, flair, map monsters, etc. will all be on layers of their own, usually sitting on top of the main map layers. Just like icons, these can be as complicated and intricate as you can be bothered with!
That's the bones of it, but honestly another artist could tell you something completely different and swear by it. The best way (the only way really) to work it out, is by having a go yourself and making a mess. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started and I still barely know a fraction of what photoshop can do. One thing that I would say is necessary, is a drawing tablet, as you simply can't get what you want out of a mouse. I'm using an old, beat up wacom intuos and it still gets the job done, so you don't need anything super expensive.
Good luck!
ThreeGivenNames