I’m taking a Photoshop class at NYU. Since I taught myself Photoshop, there’s a lot of tools I don’t use because I don’t know what they do. I also wanted to learn why certain tools cause a certain effect. Photoshop has a keyboard shortcut for almost every function. I’ve always Read more…
Almost finished the world map and the new map of Jael. I just need to add darker boundary lines. Jael is the main province (land) in the series. Book 1, The Sciell, was set in only two places- De’Ray and Raesul. The characters didn’t care about the rest of the land. Read more…
Designing this land was fairly straightforward. Last week, I showed you how my landmasses start. Using the Eraser Tool, I drag it around the edges in a zigzag to create a more realistic coastline. Continents don’t have such straight lines. As usual, the mountains caused me some trouble. Because of Read more…
Creating this land was…something special. I experimented with some fun effects. I had to play around with Photoshop because I couldn’t find the map making tutorial I needed. Last week, I introduced you to Sorin. Now, it looks like this: I like the map, but there’s something off about it. Read more…
I treat map making the same way I treat writing– if my instincts tell me it doesn’t work, then I gotta change something. This blog series will help me finish my book images on time. I’ll be sharing my map making experience every Wednesday until the images are done. In Read more…
First, I made a country. Now, I need to tackle the world. I’ve started working on the world map for Chains of the Sciell, Book 2 of The Merging Worlds Trilogy. I’m doing this more for fun. The characters never leave Jael. It’ll be useful to include a world map in Read more…
Drawing your world map gets you thinking about placement of each continent as well as the climate for each country. This led me to a crop conundrum. In your world, or any made up world, one county is not going to produce every kind of crop your people need- unless Read more…
You need to know every part of your world even if it’s not in the story. I started working on the world map- a digital version of this: And, it did not turn out the way I wanted it to. I mean it is tragic. I won’t even share it Read more…
You know those moments when you just feel silly and you’re glad no one knew about your mistake? We’ll I’m gonna share mine with you. So, I go in to work on my map in Photoshop. I chose a brush only, no matter what I do, nothing shows up- no Read more…
Mapmaking is harder than I thought. But, it is fun. I so can’t wait for my new computer to get here. Using Photoshop on a laptop that can’t handle it requires a whole lot of patience. Creating rivers with a mouse is really hard. I need my touch screen. On Read more…
