It's not often that I do, or rather try to do water color paint digitally. Here I was commissioned by a client to create an illustration of a forest area. This was for a dungeons and dragons game-module, the client said he wished for the map to look "authentically" as if drawn by a real cartographer inside the game world.

This is the finished illustration.

My intention was to create a pic that would plausibly be encountered in an ancient book, hence the old parchment look.The way I begin is with my crude sketch on a blank canvas.

Next I add farms to the small settlements on the south and an orc settlement to the north.

Now this is going to be a heavily forested area. I drew a ton of trees but I must confess I did not draw them all. Once I had a bunch of them I doubled them and created a tree pattern I could use to fill the area.

Next I added a decorated compass symbol and the scale marker. I actually did not erase the patch of trees where the compass is. I only used a mask layer on the trees to take them out temporarily. That way I still have the option to remove the compass if I so need.

Now as usual, I add a parchment layer and a path that goes through the forest.

The parchment layer doesn't look exactly "dated" or old as it is. Paper usually ages and is stained by regular use. Next I add splatter stains to the paper. It's actually black in color but set as an overlay layer in photoshop.

Now I add text labels to the illustrations. The names of the locations are of my own creation and refer to other illustrations in my collection. Each settlement is a different illustration.

After this, it could stay like that but I added some watercolor to the trees and elements on the map for a dated feel, the hues tend to the red-orange range so it looks old.

I'm a graphic illustrator and I focus my work in tabletop RPG games like dungeons and dragons, not the most popular stuff, but someone's got to do it. (happily)

I'm new on Steemit but have great aims to share my work in posts like this one where people can see illustrations be created from the ground up.

Send some love, likes and follow me for awesome cartography illustrations.

I do this full time and I love creating fantastic locations !

If you're interested in my work, take a look at my crowdfunding page https://www.patreon.com/elventower

There is a pledge level that gives access to my photoshop source files, in case you wish to see my workflow and learn in the process.

Derek Ruiz