Map Making

Step 1. I started with a 600x400 pixel, transparent image in The Gimp. The bottom layer is plain white and the second layer is just the black outline of the continent. I used the "Circle Fuzzy (05) (5 x 5)" brush; that is, a 5-pixel diameter anti-aliased circular brush.

I traced over my original pencil sketch with my Wacom tablet.

Step 2. I made a third layer and used the fill bucket to flood the outer portion of the map with solid black. The little white border between the black ocean and the white land is due to my using the fuzzy brush instead of the non-fuzzy (non-anti-aliased) brush. I hadn't intended on the effect, but I liked it, so I kept it. I'm not sure whether I really like it in the final result, but I still think it looks cool in black and white here.

Step 3. I made a duplicate layer of the outline, filled the ocean black, and used the "Select region by color" tool to fill all the transparent pixels white. With the Burn tool (opacity 100%, highlights mode, exposure 50) set to use the "Circle Fuzzy (07) (7 x 7)" brush, I outlined the base of the mountain ranges.

(I like using a lot of layers and duplicates, so that it's easy to rearrange and revert to old versions. I'm no longer going to explicitly say where I made extra layers and duplicates, but my general philosophy is that you can never have to many. You can always delete them later, but you can't very easily split one layer into two once you've started working on it.)

Step 4. Then I filled in the mountain range outlines.

Step 5. I continued burning outlines of the higher elevation areas of the mountains. Ignore for now that darker usually means lower and lighter higher; we'll fix that in the next step.

Step 6. Next, I inverted the colors (Layers > Colors > Invert). Now the elevation colors look more like what we'd expect.

Step 7. To get the base brown color, I ran Layers > Colors > Colorize... and fiddled with the settings until it looked like the right shade of brown.

Step 8. Filters > Map > Bump Map... Again, I fiddled with the settings of the plugin until I liked how the preview looked.

Step 9. I made a duplicate of the brown 3D elevation layer and colorized it green.

Step 10. On the green layer, I ran Filters > Noise > Noisify... I made the noise colors dependent and set them fairly low (0.16 each, to be exact). This gave the green some texture.

Step 11. I arranged the layers so that the brown was on top, then green, then the rest. I added a layer mask (select the brown layer, then do Layers > Masks > Add Layer Mask... with option "Transfer Layer's Alpha Channel"). Use the airbrush tool to let in the textured green layer underneath, wherever you want green to show up. When you're done, apply the layer mask.

You may have noticed the desert off on the peninsula. I don't have a separate image for that stage of the map construction, but it was made by dodging the brown layer and noisifying it.

Step 12. I added a fluffy-cloud green outline around the darker green, to more clearly delineate the forestal areas.

Step 13. For the water, I made a new layer underneath everything but the white background layer (which we're no longer using). With this new, blank layer selected, I ran Filters > Render > Clouds > Solid noise... with settings Randomize, Detail 1, X size 6.3, and Y size 4.0. Next, Filters > Distort > Wind with settings style Blast, direction right, both edges affected, threshhold 0, and strength 20. Then, Filters > Noise > Spread with settings horizontal and vertical 30 px. Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur (RLE) with settings horizontal and vertical radii 5 px. Finally, colorize it to a blue of your liking.

Step 14. Duplicate the water layer and move it above all the other layers. Add a layer mask, this time set to "Black (Full Transparency)". I drew in the lakes and rivers with the 5-pixel radius fuzzy brush, set to white so that the water layer shows up again. When you're done adding inland bodies of water, apply the layer.

Step 15. Almost done! Add in dots to represent cities. I chose to use differing sized dots to show relative city size.

Step 16. Finally, I added in city names and put my signature image in the bottom left corner. Voilà!