I often read game design blogs that it is foolish and a waste of time to make your own artwork for games that you make, but for me, the artwork is just as important to the prototype as it is to the final game, and I simply can't make one without the other.
For that reason, I spend immense amounts of time on graphic programs trying to teach myself how to make better artwork, and as I learn new and better techniques, my artwork improves, and, I believe, the overall experience of my play testers improves as well.
The above picture is one of my latest attempts to discover some board game art secrets. I have been using Adobe Illustrator to do most of my drawings up to this point, but I wanted to take the graphics a step further (as I always do). I usually avoid by hand, but its important to the overall style of the game, and here, you will see a sign-post and flag associated with our forthcoming game. I drew these using chalk pastels, scanned them onto the computer, loaded them in Adobe Photoshop, erased the background, adjusted the levels, copied them into Illustrator, did an object trace, and placed them on the board.
Be sure to look for these objects on the board when the game finally comes out...
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