Voolf's miscellaneous art

[Voolf]

It is really pretty so far though!

Are planning on adding places and labels too?

It is indeed labelled and posted in the Finished Map section.

I am back at work with another project.
Still early sketch phase a lot may be altered.
However, generally I am planning to make a relief map with small zoom in map depicting city plan on islands.

[- JO -]

Looking forward to see how you'll manage that !
The pieces on the left of the map are islands, or the zoom in maps ?

[Voolf]

Looking forward to see how you'll manage that !
The pieces on the left of the map are islands, or the zoom in maps ?

Those are zoomed in islands that can be found in the south centre of the continent.
Ideally I will add more details to these few islands and then also add another inlet map with crude city plan.
Will see if I can manage to do all of it

Here is southern part of the continent.

[Ilanthar]

Looking good! And I'm curious about that nice big title .

[- JO -]

Those are zoomed in islands that can be found in the south centre of the continent.
Ideally I will add more details to these few islands and then also add another inlet map with crude city plan.
Will see if I can manage to do all of it

Here is southern part of the continent.

Excellent! An ambitious programme!
Personally, I always have problems finding harmony in the composition of the different elements of a map.
Even with a border, a compass rose, a scale and a title, I'm often stuck and unhappy with the result.
So I'm really looking forward to seeing how you're going to put all the planned elements into your composition...
I think it's going to be a great source of inspiration for me!

[- JO -]

And actually I have a technical questions : what is the size and resolution of your maps ?
I tried several solutions : big maps with 300 dpi resolutions, smaller with 600 dpi, but I always find myself drawing on a single pixel level... And the result is always not what I was hoping for.

[Voolf]

And actually I have a technical questions : what is the size and resolution of your maps ?
I tried several solutions : big maps with 300 dpi resolutions, smaller with 600 dpi, but I always find myself drawing on a single pixel level... And the result is always not what I was hoping for.

I am not a pro in this field either.
I stared my maps very small because of the RAM issue I had few years back as well as Krita was not as good as now.
The result was maps bigger then A3 for print will crash Krita on later stages because of insufficient RAM and bugs.

Now I have enough memory and Krita also become much more reliable.
However I got used to my process and still am stuck to it.
So my maps are usually A4 or A3 with 300dpi just in case I would like to print in in the future.
Occasionally, I am am making A2 at 300 dpi, but that is always a commission.

The 300 dpi is suppose to be a default for print. I have read that and heard that everywhere.
After few years I have learn that this is simply not true though. At least not for raster art.
If you are doing vector illustrations, you do want to export final image at 300 dpi for a quality print.
However some of my clients printed my maps on A1 where the actual canvas size was A3 and there was no quality drop visible by human eye.
This means that for a quality A3 print I could most likely do 100-150 dpi.

What a lot of artists do is to make a canvas size 3x bigger than what they want at the screen resolution. (I believe it is the same as desired size at 300dpi)
Then they shrink the final image so all the imperfections are not visible and the overall image does not have to be super detailed, but rather can have sloppy stokes.
They will blend in together nicely into an "organised chaos" after making image smaller.

I am not sure if that helps. Again I am not a good person to ask about that, LOL.

Here is a little update. I have started first shades.

[- JO -]

Thanks a lot !
It does help, really, even if it just to reassure myself about the "groung rules"... I've heard too, this rule of 300 dpi but I wasn't sure it was right, because I always find myself drawing with 1 pixel brushes at the end (and it's not really beautiful... It reminds me when we use to have 8bit video games... kind of "pixel art", without the "art"...)
I guess it's just a bad habit I have to work against.
Thanks a lot again !

[- JO -]

What a lot of artists do is to make a canvas size 3x bigger than what they want at the screen resolution. (I believe it is the same as desired size at 300dpi)
Then they shrink the final image so all the imperfections are not visible and the overall image does not have to be super detailed, but rather can have sloppy stokes.
They will blend in together nicely into an "organised chaos" after making image smaller.

So, just to be sure I understood correctly, It's 900 dpi on a A4 map, or a A2 map at 300 dpi ???

[Voolf]

I always find myself drawing with 1 pixel brushes at the end (and it's not really beautiful... It reminds me when we use to have 8bit video games... kind of "pixel art", without the "art"...)

If I understand this correctly and you use 1px size brush, then that is indeed the problem. 1px brush will not have smooth edges, because there is no "room" for anti-aliasing of a brush.
I tend to use at least 3px size brush for lines. However I know that for icons on my maps it is too small. They do not look so good. I suggest using 3-5px sized brush for line work.
If it looks too thick, make the canvas along with the map bigger and then shrink the final image. It will look better.

So, just to be sure I understood correctly, It's 900 dpi on a A4 map, or a A2 map at 300 dpi ???

If you ask about my maps, I do A2 or A3 at 300dpi (I never go higher than 300 dpi). It means that in theory I can print the map in good quality but it will be 3x smaller. In reality in can be printed 2x smaller and it still looks perfect. Digitally those 300dpi does not matter.

If you ask about the digital 3x bigger canvas, I cannot be sure how other do it, but I believe that they just make maps at their screen dpi or just round it too 100dpi (most screens have now 96dpi. Some older have 72dpi if i recall correctly).
So if an artist intents do make 3000 x 2000px digital map as a final product, they will multiply that x3, make canvas 9000 x 4000px at 100dpi. Then draw the map with bigger brushes and when it done shrink it 3x to 3000 x 2000px.

________________

An update