Hand-drawn map-in-progress [updated 1/31]

[ZombieButch]

Whenever I need a break from staring at the computer, I usually end up either grabbing my sketchbook or whatever musical instrument is closest at hand. I had a hankering to break out some drawing materials that I haven't used in a while the other day (and since this is a board for art and cartography and not recordings of sea chanties played on a ukulele or bad punk guitar), so I decided to do a map the old fashioned way.

I'm always interested in seeing how stuff like this progresses, and I figure that there are probably one or two others out there with a similar interest, so I'll be posting up the work-in-progress shots as I do it.

Here's where it stands right now. It's done on watercolor paper, since I plan on coloring it with watercolors when I'm done. The sketch was done with a plain ol' 5H pencil. I tried using one of my blue Prismacolor Copy-Nots, but it was just too light.

I'm inking over it with a crowquill pen. I'm using my favorite of all nibs, the Hunt 99 Drawing tip, which I prefer vastly over the more popular Hunt 102. (The 102 is a bit finicky for me.) The ink is Speedball Super Black.

You can see that I don't sketch in a lot of details; I usually don't when I'm inking my own drawings.

 

[pogre]

Thanks for sharing - I love the way this map is shaping up.

 

[Nellisir]

Really nice. I'm going to have to study it.

 

[Kris]

Very nice.

I sometimes think of trying to draw a few maps the good old fashioned way (they have a certain 'something' that computer generated ones simply cannot replicate I find) - but I have grown to rely on the 'Ctrl+Z' (undo) option too much - so much so that the last time I was actually drawing something manually and made a mistake, I immediately thought Ctrl+Z in my head :\ (sad I know).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.

 

[Nellisir]

Very nice.

I sometimes think of trying to draw a few maps the good old fashioned way (they have a certain 'something' that computer generated ones simply cannot replicate I find) - but I have grown to rely on the 'Ctrl+Z' (undo) option too much - so much so that the last time I was actually drawing something manually and made a mistake, I immediately thought Ctrl+Z in my head :\ (sad I know).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.

I make lots of copies and scans as I go. If it's black and white, it's pretty easy to scan, undo a mistake, and print out a new, corrected copy. It's tough with color, because the printed colors don't always blend precisely with the fresh colors, but you can always erase mistakes afterwards if they're small.

 

[ZombieButch]

Thanks all! My electricity was out almost all day, so I ended up getting quite a bit more work done on it, and got caught up on some reading to boot! I'm taking a break from it for awhile so I can come back to it this evening with fresh eyes, but I'll try to either scan or take a picture of the work so far later.

I do wish I hadn't rendered the trees so much, though. They're a little too dark and busy, now that I look at it. Ah well, I'll chalk it up to a learning experience!

I make lots of copies and scans as I go. If it's black and white, it's pretty easy to scan, undo a mistake, and print out a new, corrected copy. It's tough with color, because the printed colors don't always blend precisely with the fresh colors, but you can always erase mistakes afterwards if they're small.

Ben Caldwell has an interesting technique. He does his pencils, scans them in, and then reduces the opacity of the line way down in Photoshop. Then he prints the lightened pencil drawing out, inks it, and scans THAT back in for cleanup. If he screws up the inking, it's no biggie, because he can just print out another pencil drawing. And when he's done, he's got TWO origninals - the pencil and the inked version - to sock away and put in a sketchbook, sell on eBay, or whatever. Pretty clever, I think! He does all his coloring in Photoshop, so that part at least isn't a problem.

 

[Pyrandon]

This is great, just great! Thanks for posting this! I'm glad your elec-shockity went bye-bye!

 

[ZombieButch]

So here's the latest. I'm really, really unhappy with how fiddly I started making the fields. I let my mind wander while I was working, and my hand just sort of went off on it's own natural tendency to render the heck out of things. Chalk it up as a learning experience, I suppose.

I don't have a good way to fix it on the original (I don't have any opaque white that won't mess up the look of the watercolors) so I'll just try to clear up some the fiddly bits in the field in Photoshop later on. I'll probably go ahead and render out the rest of the fields, though, so the original will at least have a consistent look.

 

[jaerdaph]

Excellent work, Palehorse!

I wish I could draw like that.

 

[Nellisir]

I still like it, and it's still miles ahead of anything I can do (left to itself, my hand makes splotches and blotches, not fields). That said, there's something weird about the perspective, kinda...."fish-eye". I think it's the shading in the trees and the houses; there's no consistent light source. Most (thought not all) of the shading simply goes away from the center, rather than left to right, or top to bottom. It's going on with the fields too, actually - the grass in the upper right is oriented on the diagonal more than the horizontal. It's an...odd effect.