I used to love drawing my own treasure maps as a boy, especially the tea-staining stage which transformed my doodled piece of white paper into an antique parchment. I’ve been reliving that childhood experience by producing a toolkit for Adobe Illustrator which helps you construct your own treasure map digitally, using a range of vector assets to plot a route to buried treasure on a fantasy island. Download my free Treasure Map Maker to create fun artwork for party invitations, storybook imagery, wall art and more. It includes vector graphics, brushes and patterns that can be quickly combined to build a fictional landscape.
In today’s Adobe Photoshop video tutorial we’re going to have some fun creating a map of our own fantasy world, just like the fictional story settings of Neverland, Middle-Earth or Westoros. We’ll use Photoshop’s built in tools to establish the landmass and sea, then construct hills, mountains and deserts with some simple filter combinations, before finishing off the artwork with a vintage paper texture and place names to simulate an old world map.
The role of an artist is to visually depict a subject or scene. Typically this is done by observing and replicating, but artists are given much more creative freedom when working within the realm of fantasy, where we rely on the artist’s impression of a subject’s appearance that doesn’t actually exist in the real world. There are many legendary mythical beasts that we’ve heard descriptions of in stories, but it’s the artist who can bring their imagination to life by sharing their own interpretations as paintings and illustrations. In today’s inspiration showcase I present 45 magnificent art and design pieces featuring fantasy animals and mythical beasts from a range of talented artists.
Access All Areas members have a great collection of vector illustrations to download this week, courtesy of Adrian Pelletier. This set of Vintage Motorcycle Elements contains various vector drawings with an old-school, industrial style. Combine the illustrations of skulls, wings, flames, pistons, snakes and more to make the perfect retro racing poster, automotive emblem, sticker design, or anything a gearhead could want!
It’s Design Cuts’s 5th birthday, and to celebrate, they’re currently running a spectacular discount on all their top design resource products. For the next 2 weeks, all their greatest fonts, graphics, add-ons and templates are just $5 each, regardless of their regular value. This is a fantastic opportunity to effectively build your own bundle of all the specific items you want, fill your cart with as many incredible resources as you can while the offer lasts!
One of my Spoon Graphics readers recently sent me an email with a great tutorial suggestion based on one of the promo graphics of the free font named Manrope. The cited artwork featured a collection of letters as long three dimensional shapes of varying heights, densely packed together in the scene. Clearly some kind of 3D modelling software was used to produce the original concept, but I experimented with Photoshop’s built-in 3D tools to see if a similar effect could be made. Follow along with today’s tutorial to learn how to use Photoshop’s 3D capabilities to create the effect yourself.
