Jungle Island

[Larion]

So, last night I made a small island map in Photoshop. It's not much, but here it is.

Jungle Island.png

It's only 600 x 400. So, my reason for this thread is to ask for some advice. What I want to do now I make a new document, about 3000 x 2000 (to maintain the aspect ratio), overlay and then stretch the small jungle map out. I'm not going to use the actual map for anything other than a reference, however. I'm gonna make a new map, using the same shapes and lines, same forests, mountains, rivers, and swamps, but more detailed.

So the advice I'm looking for is... what kinds of details could I add? Cities, ruins, roads are all obvious choices... I'm even toying with the idea of doing a 6000 x 4000 so I can REALLY get into the details. Thoughts? Advice? It's all much appreciated

[kaelin]

The first thing I would ask, in offering advice is, "What is the scale of this map?" Details are somewhat ambiguous if the viewer doesn't have a frame of reference. If the mountain base is say, 10 miles at the widest point, that gives us a large of island of roughly 70 miles high and about 210 miles long (rough guesstimations)? Increasing the size by tenfold would allow you to view the map in very fine detail, possibly including the actual layout of houses and farms and the like.
The second thing I'd ask is, "How much detail do you want to include?" If you're not interested in being able to zoom in to count the chickens in Miss Betty's barnyard, you probably don't need to zoom in quite that far or include that much detail. However, being able to zoom in that close would allow you to pull areas out of the map to lay out encounters or any number of historical applications, right down to the precise location of King Youknowthatoneguy's burial site.
Adding detail to a map like that can make for a lot of work, so you may wish to consider what you need and what you want in comparison to the scale of what you have.
It's a great looking map, by the by! Well done!