The Continent of Essaria - First map, and with some backstory!
Hi guys! I have been writing a novel and I wanted to create a map of the portion of the world it is based in. I drew a crappy version in MS Paint, double sized it, redid the coasts and added islands and lakes, and then followed Diamond's Smooth Coastlines and Concentric Coasts tutorial to make the coastal rings. After that, I overlaid a political map (and managed to make it thirty times harder than it had to be) and used the stroke tool to draw the borders.
Finally I dropped the names down and used the select, inverse, expand method of doing things that I learned in the tutorial to create a nice white backdrop.
I hope you guys like the map! I would appreciate criticism for when I do the next continent in the world.
dc4DtS.png
And here is where I've been dumping backstory on my novel if anyone is interested in learning of some of the countries: A Land of Wind and Ash
Looking good, I really like the continent shape an the coasts! The labeling could use some work though, you have lots of fonts which doesn't look very good, and the black and white is far too strong in my opinion. Since you're only naming countries here, one font would be enough, and setting the opacity of the text to around 80% would make it much easier on the eyes.
Still, great job for your first map! I'll give you some rep
That linework looks really detailed--the islands are eye candy.
Great first map imo :]
Thanks a lot! I've always had a shaky hand and I like to try and use that to my advantage when I make coasts.Originally Posted by arishok
I tested with the transparencies but wasn't too sure so I decided to stick with the full colors. The fonts are meant to reflect the culture, though I agree that some of them should be changed out. Thank you!Looking good, I really like the continent shape an the coasts! The labeling could use some work though, you have lots of fonts which doesn't look very good, and the black and white is far too strong in my opinion. Since you're only naming countries here, one font would be enough, and setting the opacity of the text to around 80% would make it much easier on the eyes.
Still, great job for your first map! I'll give you some rep
Looking great. Way better looking than my first map. I am also a writer. From what I can tell by looking at your map, I am already interested in seeing what your novel will be about. Great Job!
Although I understand the temptation for different fonts to help set apart cultures, if its for public consumption I would reconsider. For personal use, fine, but out in the greater world, probably not the best idea.
Otherwise, a nice first take from a visual standpoint.
Upon the Creation of the World the First Dragons cast their seed in the light of a Sun and a Thousand Suns, beneath the Moon and a Thousand Moons, on a World and a Thousand Worlds.
www.sistercontinents.com
And the color choice for the empire, not fond of that blending so closely with the water, but that's me.
Upon the Creation of the World the First Dragons cast their seed in the light of a Sun and a Thousand Suns, beneath the Moon and a Thousand Moons, on a World and a Thousand Worlds.
www.sistercontinents.com
Veldehar you can avoid double posts by editing posts (edit button just bottom right of the post scrern)
Regardless of whether you use an array of fonts or not, fraktur in small sizes gets pretty illegible. That might wind up a deciding factor in whether you use font as culture symbology - if one can't read what the name of the country is, then which culture it belongs to may be moot.
But I like it. Nice job!
Very nice map. The only thing I don't like is the colour of the Empire that looks like the surrounding waters.
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