Thread: An Island called Tinbain

I think it looks good Well done . I will toss you some rep for it as well.

I do have a few points though...First would be that the water of your ocean is too dark to my eys and sort of hides the islands if you understand me, and when forcing me to look hard, the little bit of shadow around the coast makes it look like it is floating. I would try lightening the water and instead of a shadow, for the coast go with a lighter blue than all the rest. I would then use THAT blue for the rivers and lakes. The blue that you are using there does not really match the rest of the map.....

BTW, LOVE the volcano

It's ok, but a bit dark.

I like it.

I agree with Korash r.e. the darkness of the water and coast. Instead of that outer shadow or black outer glow around the coasts, you might try a very slight bevel or emboss instead. It'll have the effect of making your coastlines well-defined without making them look like they're 'floating'. I do like the actual color of the ocean, and I'd leave that alone. I think you just need to define your coastlines in a different way.

Have some rep for jumping right in with a map!

@Korash
Thank you for your advice. I know what you mean about the river water, it certainly is lighting out. It did not start out that way, it was darker and less saturated, and while that blended in nicely, it was hard to see the rivers. Okay, that's hard even now, especially in forests, but I wanted to avoid them to be generally invisible.
So I took your advice about the coastline, but with river water instead of just a lighter blue. I like it, but it looks like tropical water. I guess I have to research why I get that impression and if there is a way to fix it, but I couldn't do that today. Also, the ocean is a bit lighter in general.

I guess I can't take full credit for the vulcano. While I wanted to put one their, it was just fortunate that the stone texture I used for mountains had that little rusty spot, which I just cut out and placed their.

@Naeddyr
Yes, it certainly was. Thank you for your advice.

@Diamond
Not sure it I really deserve reputation for that, it's more that I'm afraid to comment anything others made when I'm new to a board. But thank you anyway.
Bevel/emboss only works on small objects, as soon as you only see one side of the object there is almost no difference to an inner glow in white or black. For this map it would be fine, but I don't want to use a method I can't use for bigger projects later - it's not only about this map, but how I develop my style. I think the way Korash described works for me - yeah, probably I'll have to adjust the color, but the island is certainly not floating anymore, don't you agree? :)



So, beside the coastline and brightness corrections, I also elevated those mountains so the island isn't too flat anymore. And I added those locations I already know of, as well as a grid and scales.

I'd appreciate advice regarding the following:
1.) Are those too many grid lines? I don't think it makes sense to use less when they have their space, but it could look a slightly bit better.
2.) I read that "How to put names in"-guide (or at least I looked into it) and it said that you shouldn't place any name on both water and land. But does that apply to text which has it's own drop shadow and everything? Or is that more for those maps where text is plain black?
3.) I'm not sure if I like that you see the names first and the point they refer to only after. But how can I change that? I don't think I could give those symbols so much more visual weight, and if I reduce the texts weight it's less readable, obviously.

Dido on the darkness, but this is a very nice first map. Welcome to the Guild!

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Love the colors myself. I've always like dark and moody maps and yours fits the bill nicely. Nice of you to drop a tutorial along the way.