Thread: My first try - so be gentle :)

In terms of graphics, it's good - especially for a first go. I like the river banks and the raised ground effects.

I have some thoughts on the village layout. I think that there'd be a few more building clustered around #2. I'm sure that there'd be a couple of people making use of the small lake to the right hand side of the picture for fishing. Building #3, #6, #7 and #8 might be isolated farmsteads / small holdings. The other buildings would more than likely cluster together a bit more - possibly even having a palisade built around the village for protection. Especially as you're saying that it's a village in the middle of nowhere.
Does the lake feed in to the river underground? It might be nice to see a small connection between the lake and the river where it bends. Possibly some feeder streams from the mountains.

[EDIT]
Attached a rough hack to show a possible change to the layout. My apologies for spoiling the look of the map in the hack, I've only got MS Paint to play around with at the moment.

Thanks for the suggestions - I find them very helpful. Will do version 1.1 in a couple of days.

I had a couple of thoughts but then realized that they are all dependent on the scale of your map. So rather than waste your time, I'll first ask, what is the scale?

Hey! Nice adaptation of that tutorial! I like how you have gone the stylistic/representational route vs. my own more realistic approach. Once you get the layout down, as Valarian & I'm sure The Cartographist will assist you into, I would blur the edges of the buildings some; right now they are so sharp and crip-edged that the buildings seem to float on top. I really, really like the mountains (or are they hills? Might want to do some brown coloring there if mts.--maybe even white cap them), and the trees are interesting too. Overall, a great job. (And no, that's not just me being "gentle", either!)

PS: Your screen name is great!

I think the drop shadows are contributing to the appearance that the houses are floating, too.

I will agree, the houses appear to be floating because of the drop shadow.

Also, for me the Trees have a scalloped effect like sliced cucumbers placed down in fanned pattern.

The Hills I like, they look good.

Thank you people for your feedback - you are such a friendly community. Right now I have a huge amount of work, but as soon as I finish it - I'll try to incoroprate your advice and answer your questions. Thanks again.