Hi Everyone :)

Ralf is doing a Live Mapping session tomorrow (5 November 2020) on the recently published Spectrum Overland Expansion issue of this year's Cartographer's Annual. If you are able to come along and take part in the Live Mapping session please do. You will be more than welcome to make comments and ask questions.

You can book a reminder by clicking the link above and then using the Set Reminder button.

Thank you - all, again :)

Wyvern - you've had that same experience, eh? It's always a shame, isn't it. The paper is still being tweaked but it is already much as it will end up being. I've tried a new technique this time - tiny wood particles (lines) instead of blobs, like paper used to be before it was made of rags and machine-pulped wood. Thanks for mentioning Spectrum 2 ;)

Jim - That's a really nice city map you did there. I do like the green parchment. I'm going for a similar effect, but instead of having a huge array of many different colours of parchment, I'm doing just the one parchment texture and using a Blend Mode on a single terrain sheet to blend colours with it. The only fills that aren't done that way are the forest and ocean fills. That means I can get away with a comparatively massive seamless paper texture that is 3000 px square, rather than limit the pattern to a more noticeably repeating 1000 px square. I've also used a trick I learned from Simon Rogers last year, and reduced the colours to 64k, so even though it's a png file it's only about a third the size you might imagine.

Thank you, David, Quenten, Dalton, Gary and Joe :)

Interesting reactions from all of you. I have been using several accepted grimdark maps as a muse for inspiration, so I know they are all pretty variable when compared to each other, and that it is more of a story atmosphere than a map thing. So maybe I'm still way off the mark.

I would like to keep those texture colours as they are, though, since they are more grey than coloured already, so lets just see what can be done about the mountains and other symbols yet to be created. A few bright red, green or purple place symbols might just show how grey the rest of the map really is.

Something like this, then?

I think it's meant to be more of a personal challenge than an actual competition. That and just being part of a team working towards the same goal. I'm looking forward to seeing your bit of it :)