Old school method for mountain shading I never see anymore

I was looking at a map in a 1984 Dragon magazine the other day. Those old hand drawn maps had this specific way of doing mountain ranges. Short, tight hash marks on the shadow side. Now everyone just uses a big fuzzy brush in Photoshop or GIMP. It loses all that texture and direction. Am I the only one who thinks digital mountain shading looks too smooth nowadays?

3 comments

3 Comments

angelaellis1d agoMost Upvoted

Those tight hash marks gave mountains actual weight and shadow direction.

the_sage1d ago

Those tight hash marks gave mountains actual weight and shadow direction" - yeah, that's exactly it. I read an article once about old map illustrators using hatched lines specifically to mimic how light hits rocky terrain from a low sun angle. You can really feel the texture in those vintage maps, like the paper itself is rugged.

amy6921d ago

Is it just me or did those old hash marks make you feel like you could actually FIGHT your way through that mountain pass? @angelaellis totally nailed it, the shading gave a sense of weight that digital brushes just can't match. I've tried to recreate that look myself and ended up with something that looked more like a scribbled hedgehog than a mountain range.