In that last look at my most recent in-progress map, I mentioned that I wanted to start doing the colour by painting them digitally so they look more like actual documents and less like digital arts just Paint Bucket filled.
For reference, the stuff I’m trying to emulate looks like this:
A lower-resolution version of the original on Wikimedia Commons, via UNESCO. Public Domain.
And what I’ve been able to get out of Affinity Photo looks like this:
To refresh your memory, that’s the emblem of the former Elven Empire and its former capital, the city of Imperialis, depicting the Elven goddess Capitolina.
Fun fact: that’s Tyrian purple, traditional colour of Roman and Byzantine Emperors (something of an artificial distinction, but still handy for historiographical purposes; the Byzantines considered themselves the continuation of the Ancient Roman Empire via an unbroken line of succession), which is made from crushed snails.
I actually realised that this wasn’t going to work after I finished doing it. For the actual map, I’m using pennants to denote the various cities, so a circle wasn’t going to work. However, I liked it too much to completely discard it.
Even in just the last few days since I started that map, I’m impressed with how much better I’ve made it look.
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Realmgard 