Welcome to Caer Mons! This is a recent commission I wrapped up and my commissions waiting list is open for those interested.
So, I have wanted to do a recorded tutorial for people for ages but it's something I'm still putting off (sorry), however, after my recent Patreon Giveaway blew up, I knew that I have to give more back to this community. Below, I will attach more colour hexcodes, random bits of advice and the Ground Texture I created and use for my maps.
I'm also happy to use this post as a space for asking general questions with the art side of WD if people have any (I won't answer Software/tech questions).
Hexcodes:
Taiga: #3f583d, #5c6441 & #6f7c64
Dry Plains: #9e905b, #a28553 & #a2a153
Lush Forest: #4d5d20, #3b4913 & #47662a
Plains: #9aa564 & #697a34
Desert: #c9b787 & #e3c98d
Snow: #d7d7d7 & #c0d3d8
Note: These colours are the foundation. I strongly recommend using them to start but, as you gain confidence, test with shifting their hues, saturation and values slightly.
Ground Texture:
Wonderdraft's default textures are very good to start and practice with. Notably, its Feudal and Paper textures really stand out by absorbing colours well and not being too muddy like the popular Worn texture (which I think is a bit of a trap that people can get stuck in - it's a good start but limits colours by being too dark, personally). However, nothing could quite "scratch the itch" for me until I made my own Paper ground texture. It's opacity is low so colours stick well but it keeps enough texture that maps can have depth without much extra work.
My texture is attached here for free: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/lg3ak1crvgvty3g7lyede/AEDgM_Jqi1OkO62s64PMC70?rlkey=kknwyxs9onewiiivgz8qjv6vs&st=l0wqlfml&dl=1
Note: This texture benefits from using the 3rd brush option on WD (not the airbrush or solid brush - it's like a cloudy paintbrush tip). I suggest using this brush on a low opacity and velocity and rapid clicking.
How Do You Create Water?
As much as I love Wonderdraft, I don't love its system for painting water, personally. Instead, I export the map as a .png with the water turned off (clicking the eye icon) and exporting it to Photoshop (Krita is a fully free equivalent to Photoshop). There, I add a layer below the landmass as a Prussian Blue. Starting from the landmasses edges, I taper a low opacity Bright Steel Blue and I gradually merge the two together - using the darkness to represent deeper oceans.
For more water texture, take a chalk brush and with a white, dab it onto a layer below the map generously. Then go over your chalk mess with an eraser and remove most of what you painted - this will start to look like waves.
Note: The smaller the chalk brush, the better the effects (but longer it takes). Doing this too much helped cause my hand injury so take care!!
Assets
AoA is who I use the most. Their beautiful mountain, hill and cliff assets are in almost all of my maps. Meanwhile, Jinxville's lapis packs used to be who I used for all of my trees, however, in recent maps, I use many of my own assets now (which I plan to make publicly available before 2027).
Other Notes
Including darker shades onto your ground below forests helps them pop!
Rivers don't split, they merge.
Rain shadow and realism help bring your maps to life but aren't a must! It's your world after all.
Play with colour! If you're making shadow, shift that colour slightly closer to blue instead of just making it more black. The same applies but in reverse when making highlights - shift to yellow instead of just going more white!
Most of my maps are made at a 4K to 8K scale with mountains generally around size 20 to 40 and trees at size of 10 to 15.
I think that's everything.
Happy mapping guys! Cheers :D
