The World of Avon Arret

[Dawningwhispers]

Greetings!

well new map, and it is a work in progress rather then a finished one, like the last time I posted here at the guild.

using a large(very large I think) black and white image of the earth i used photoshop to completely disassemble copy and paste the continents and islands in different ways to create some vaguely unique looking landmasses. after that i added some new layers filled them with blue and green adding textures and other colors to make them look slightly more interesting.
and now i am posting it here for others to comment on it. of course as its a work in progress its not finished the things that are needed are

• Mountains
• Rivers
• Deserts
• Forests
• Etc.

Feel free to suggest locations for where these things might possibly be placed because I am at a loss.


http://puu.sh/3gBFM.jpg

Edit: i do apologize if the link is not the correct way to show my work but i was unable to get it as an attachment (probably do to size)

[Lingon]

That looks good, though many shapes are a bit too recognizable. I suggest stitching together smaller segments and mixing them with more of your own coasts. Overall, it looks really nice, but looking closer, it's easy to find Italy, Greece, Argentina and Chile, most of North America, etc.

As for the geographical features, thinking of the tectonic plates will give you likely mountain locations, which in turn will show where rivers would be (there's a great tutorial in the tutorial section talking more about this), and rivers give water to forests, and what remains after that becomes desert. Simplified, but it's a starting point perhaps?

[Dawningwhispers]

almost anytime I try to make my own coasts it looks rather horrible(to me anyways) and/or not overly unique, i will admit i should probably work around more to remove Italy Florida and Alaska(or smudge the coastline to be less noticeable) I don't think removing or altering the arctic archipelago would make the map better mainly because it was how it started with the map and it just looks unique but is also to msot people not actually recognizable by sight.

As for the mountains and other such feature's while i am aware that using tectonic plates would solve the issues, the problem is that i have no idea where the tectonic plates would be to help create a majority of the islands and the interior lakes(i hope that made sense i sat here for a minute trying to word it correctly)

but thanks Ligon i hope others have some suggestions as well its always good to have some insight from others.

[Lingon]

Yeah, coastlines are hard. I usually make at least five sketches before I even get close to something I like, and I do it by hand which probably is easier, so I understand your struggle! What I meant by "stitching together smaller segments", was, for example, instead of taking all of Italy, cut it in half lengthwise and use the two pieces in different places.

For the mountains, it's not necessary to know the tectonics, it just helps if you want that extra realism, but placing mountains where it looks good works too Just keep in mind that they form in chains, and islands are mountains with only the peaks above the surface.

By interior lakes, do you mean inland seas? Lakes are created by rivers so are only indirectly dependent on tectonics. Inland seas are like the Mediterranean Sea, with a thin passage connecting it to the ocean.

[Dawningwhispers]

Do to lack of a scanner of any type hand drawn maps are kinda pointless for me to make they always turn into just giant single islands rather then world maps as well.
splitting up the pieces would have been a good idea after the last post I did go in and change things around, completely getting rid of a recognizable Italy/Florida and such which were the only ones I could easily see myself, I'm not going to post the changes up on here yet, at least not until i get some mountains and stuff placed in.
Personally I like a little bit more realism to my maps but tectonics is still kinda beyond my comprehension with all the time scales involved not to mention directions of movement converging/diverging and transform boundaries plus the speeds at which they are moving and all that(I don't actually get so deep into the technical side of it that I'm writing different rates of movement and such, i just say Plate A is moving faster or slower in relation to plate B)

By interior lakes I was more talking about the north-western/middle area of Canada with all those lakes(which is in this map the southern continent) or the rift valley lakes in Africa i guess just calling them lakes would have made more sense.
Anyways thank you input is always useful.

[Dawningwhispers]

http://puu.sh/3oZjb.jpg

Here is a now updated version of the map taking the advice of up to three different people I've changed the water and the deserts(which were a pain in the butt to do in the first place). the rivers might be difficult to see when zoomed out but they are there(im sure there is probably a better way to do rivers then using a bevel/emboss on them but I was going a bit crazy at the time of putting the rivers down)
Unless there are some very good constructive criticism that make me re-think color schemes or how I did the different features of land then I think the actual geography/geology of this map is done, now all I need to do is draw out borders for fantasy countries name said countries give them a back story and history (I probably won't). I'll see you fellwo guild members when i next decide to do a map.

[Londonsmee]

Nice improvement, how about some cold zones. But looking good

[Dawningwhispers]

I knew I had forgot something, and now im not evne sure if a plain north / south cold system would even work with the color scheme

[Dawningwhispers]

Well now this is the final update of the land, i have added colder areas plus an ice cap. the reason why it's the final is because of the size and working with so many layers this map has the past few days nearly kileld my computer while editing, so i will no longer be working on the .psd adding or changing the land. I am as of writing this slowly working on making borders for a some countries(I even have a small history for one of the nations already). but other then that this map is finished.

http://puu.sh/3q3Fh

[Lingon]

Looking awesome! The coasts are much more unique now, which, for me, makes it easier to see the whole map rather than the small recognizable parts. The landscape is very well done. Planning to add some labels and icons to it?