jshoer's workshop

[jshoer]

I've been quiet lately, on account of a cross-country move and the a whole bunch of assorted travel. But I have still been mapping!

First, holiday visits apparently mean playing with my father-in-law's laser engraver. So, here's a topographic map engraved onto a four-inch leather coaster. He made me a set of four:



Next, I splurged on a Microsoft Surface for myself and I've been using it to try out cartography in Photoshop. I don't quite like it as much as doing things by hand, but the barrier to picking it up for a little playing around is much lower. Plus, layers and undo buttons are a thing! Anyway, I am quite pleased with some of the things I've been able to do so far. Here is my first (!!!) mountain-shading study, hand-drawn in Photoshop:

[ThomasR]

It seems you're gonna do wonders with your tablet. A piece of advice : do not use the undo button too much, draw freely and confidently. I really love the engraved piece !

[jshoer]

*pokes head into workshop*

*blows dust off all the shelves*

Whew! It's been some time since I came in here. But I am long overdue.

It's fitting that the last person here was Thomas, because some of his notebook work recently is what inspired me to get a small book to fill with study maps. I'm well on my way now, and I'll need this workshop bench here....

First up: a map drawn on a 2 hour plane flight, basically just to play with some label styles I shamelessly swiped from Diamond, as well as some new grass and forest styles.


Next, trying out some new styles for oceans in a map drawn one night while I was on the graveyard shift:


After that, a village map drawn over the course of several following nights. It made a good base for some marker effects after I got back on normal hours.


Then, a new experiment! An inverted galaxy, done by stippling black, blue, and red pens and then adding a marker overlay. The symbols are just crud, but I'm happy with the stippling and I even remembered to populate the center with more blue stars and the outer rims with more red ones.


Last, more a set of experiments than a complete map - but after seeing the end credit design of Black Panther, I couldn't get some of the patterns out of my head. I think the mountains and rivers worked really well right off the bat, but I had a hard time pinning down a forest and an ocean style. In the end, I think I like the ocean on the western border of the map very much over the southern and northeastern attempts. One of the pinwheel-y forest styles in the center seems like the best abstract patterned forest style. Of course I thought I would do this with a brush pen, which added a whole new thing to it.


Edit: corrected a misattribution. I swiped that label style from Diamond's "The Great Railroad" January 2018 challenge entry. It wasn't Ilanthar.

[Arkidemis]

I had to take a double take a #3, I thought it was digital and you just had the notebook as a background picture. They all look good though!

[elboe]

Very nice. I really like the coloring and your mixing of the markers and pencils.

I did noticed on some of these, and in some of your finished maps, you are getting a lot of bleed and puddling of the markers. I know many of these are just quick studies and sketches, but that's the paper's fault. It looks like you are using sketch books and drawing paper. A good marker paper will do wonders with the Prismacolors. You can layer and blend the markers for smoother shadows, and they don't bleed as much.

And maybe you know this, but I noticed it so I thought I'd mention it. But if you haven't used marker paper and you want to give it a try, you may end up buying a few different brands before you find your favorite. I haven't done marker for awhile but Bienfang Graphics 360 may be a good one to try first.

[J.Edward]

These look good

[jshoer]

Very nice. I really like the coloring and your mixing of the markers and pencils.

I did noticed on some of these, and in some of your finished maps, you are getting a lot of bleed and puddling of the markers. I know many of these are just quick studies and sketches, but that's the paper's fault. It looks like you are using sketch books and drawing paper. A good marker paper will do wonders with the Prismacolors. You can layer and blend the markers for smoother shadows, and they don't bleed as much.

And maybe you know this, but I noticed it so I thought I'd mention it. But if you haven't used marker paper and you want to give it a try, you may end up buying a few different brands before you find your favorite. I haven't done marker for awhile but Bienfang Graphics 360 may be a good one to try first.

Thanks!

I don't usually work with markers - my typical line art tools these days are Pigma Micron pens. I have a couple Copic pens, and I still favor some dip pens (which I used in the challenge we both entered). I use Bristol vellum most of the time for the pen-and-ink-and-colored-pencil work. Puddling of the ink from the dip pens is something I kind of see as a feature, not a bug; that challenge map had a big blob in the center-north, but I think it accentuates the hand-drawn nature of the map. Of course, that doesn't stop me from wishing I had been more careful and prevented the blob!

These studies from my last post are my most extensive use of Prismacolor markers yet - and they are actually in a Bee Paper marker notebook! It seemed to work pretty well with the pens, though I think I shot myself in the foot with the brush pen - I don't really know what I'm doing with that tool yet. Anyway, without too much marker experience, I certainly don't have a favorite marker paper. If I keep doing marker stuff, I'll have to look for some.

[elboe]

I'll have to check out that Bee Paper marker notebook, those last images you posted do look real good. I love working with markers, but I've gotten to spoiled working digitally. It's just not the same process though.

[jshoer]

I hear ya! I was really happy to start a notebook project after all that work on my tablet. I just like the feel of pen and paper much better than working on a tablet in Photoshop.

[ThomasR]

All five maps are gorgeous but the work you did on that village map ... Oh boy, it's fantastic !