Thread: First Regional Map

Nice looking shapes you have there . Only issue I see so far is the ocean. The border effect somehow rises it above the landmass. Maybe tweaking the effect will help, but applying a woodcut effect on the water might also resolve the minor issue. Good work and have some rep for posting your first map! Oh, and a higher resolution picture would also be nice

Nice antique-y feel; I like it. Good colors, kind of gives it a washed-out look.

Pretty nice! All that water does make the map seem a bit empty, though, so maybe add a bunch of islands? If no, maybe put some graphic in there?

I think the way the map is laid out, it'd serve best as a nautical map, showing the shipping routes and safe ways to cross the sea, such things. It could be an explorer having sailed along the coast and mapping what he can see from there, I guess?

Having a lot of water is an excellent opportunity to throw in a legend/key. It's looking good, but I'd like to see it a bit bigger. You might find there's not much room for labelling on such a small map.

Originally Posted by Pank.HQ

You might find there's not much room for labelling on such a small map.

That's a good point; you don't want all the text looking too cramped.

@Jykke - When I was laying in the initial colors, I must have reversed my land and water. I see what you're referring to about the water "popping up." I'll think on that.

@Diamond - Thanks. I'm going for that "well-travelled, well-worn" look.

@Alfar - Good idea about the nautical map. I decided to start the map as a world/campaign building exercise, and the map features are starting to fill in some details on their own. Something - legend, compass rose, warning about dragons - will definitely fill the watery expanse.

@Pank.HQ - Hadn't given any thought to the actual size of the map in pixels, though I did notice that when I layered the map onto the parchment, I lost some of the map. (The two images must have had different dimensions?

I have been picturing the area as largely unexplored and thus lacking many labels, just a few coastal cities and the best known inland fortresses. On the other hand, the idea of an explorer's map lends itself to hand-written notes... which will need even more space. I'll have to see what I can do to make it bigger. If all else fails, I may start over; it's just more practice.

Thanks to all for the feedback.

Apparently when I was layering the jpg of my map into the parchment for posting, I got my file names mixed up and managed to save over my original map file. FAIL!

So I started over. Same concept, only a larger file, showing the full region. The process of applying the parchment effect last time also cropped the map significantly; I'm leaving the parchment on the shelf until I get everything else done.



Added:

• Seaways

To fix:

• SE-most city is not connected by sea to anyone else. They should be part of the neighboring alliance.
• The outer border needs to be complete or completely eliminated. A couple of the the roads and seaways could be cleaned up in places... unless I decide to leave them looking a little choppy and hand-drawn
• Perhaps some sort of solid background to the cites and fortresses, so they stand out a little. The roads travel through them at the moment, and they are a little too obscured.

To-do:

• Labeling - A few place-names and explorer's notes.
• Geographic features - Still trying to decide how I want to depict things like the mountains, the desert, and the swamp. I want it simple, like it was hand-written while on the go. Can't decide if I'll use some sort of icon or just labels.

The story is starting to come together for me, too. I LOVE how the map is a part of this. I have one or two ideas, so I shape the map appropriately. They the map presents one or two questions, so I shape the story. For example:

• There is a small mountain kingdom in the NW, but why aren't there any trade routes to it? Someone unfriendly must control that region.
• Why aren't there any settlements in the southern bay? Swampland is my answer, which means there must be prevailing easterlies to bring moisture and a mountain range further west that produces the SW desert I have already decided on.

Other questions remain:

• There are two sites of interest, one in the central lake and one on the northern peninsula. What are they?
• There seem to be four factions in the region: the NW mountains, the NE traders, the SE traders, and the western cities. What kind of states are these and what are their inter-relations?

You're not the only one to do that...overwrite the original. I do it at least once a month and still haven't learned.

Fortunately there is no deadline.