![](https://hexbrawler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/a-door2.png)
Work has been especially busy lately, but we’ve been busy outside of our blog designing custom assets for mapping in Dungeondraft. Not an artist, but its been fun pretending to be with a Wacom tablet and Krita, and we are focusing on more of an old-school mapping stye.
Tonight I was making portals: i.e. doors. I had just read a post from the Alexandrian from way back in 2011 about doors in maps, and how to indicate which directions they swing. They provided and discussed a few examples:
![](https://hexbrawler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image.png)
![](https://hexbrawler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-1.png)
![](https://hexbrawler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-2.png)
including this last one, the “Elvis Door“:
![](https://hexbrawler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-3.png)
All these are functional. I like designs that indicate which way the door can swing, but also dislike that it makes the doors visually appear to be open.
Playing around in the wonderful open-source art program Krita, I came up with the design below, along with several decorative iterations. I’ll continue to tinker, probably thickening lines, but I like the indication of the hinge (the dark circle) and a simple arrow to indicate which way the door swings.
![](https://hexbrawler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/upright-portal-256x128-1.png)
![](https://hexbrawler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/upright_hatch-portal-256x128-1.png)
![](https://hexbrawler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/upright_fill-triangle-portal-256x128-1.png)
![](https://hexbrawler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/upright_fill-stone-portal-256x128-1.png)
Nothing ground breaking, but there is a certain pleasant joy in exploring it.