I think it's ready for colouring...the only bit that stands out for me is the 'glove like' appearance of the river delta. If you're doing it by hand the mountains could be a little less uniform, I guess, but it looks pretty good to me.
I think it's ready for colouring...the only bit that stands out for me is the 'glove like' appearance of the river delta. If you're doing it by hand the mountains could be a little less uniform, I guess, but it looks pretty good to me.
Agreed. The delta is a little more pronounced than it should be, especially at this scale. I'll research that. I'll look at twisting the river up a bit more in the next draft. I think my real problem there was just that it was my first line on the paper and I wasn't really loose yet.
You might also want to think about what is going on geologically with the river running between two mountain ranges. Normally, I'd expect there to be higher land linking the two ranges, which would prevent the river from flowing through there.
That isn't to say that it can't happen, but it probably means that there is something unusual going on. Look up the recent thread about using tectonics to create a world map: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2238
It's got some solid info on how mountain ranges are formed.
Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
http://www.bryanray.name
Moved.
Also, I've attached a snap from googlemaps showing the terrain around the Mackenzie River in Canada at about the same scale as your map:
This should give you a good idea of the shape a river and delta can have at this scale. The Mackenzie's delta is HUGE...over 100 miles across. I'd suspect this is because tremendous volumes of water came from the melting glaciers, carrying an large amount of material to the ocean.
With respect to the location (between two mountain ranges) remember to think in terms of watersheds. I'll reference the Mackenzie river again:
(image from Wikipedia - I added the blue square which shows the location of the above map)
You can see that every rain drop that lands in this zone in this zone eventually flow into the river. The boundaries of the watershed are ridge lines that have one watershed one one side, and a different one on the other.
As stated by others, the geography would need some explaining... but at this scale, it is not impossible, though the two ranges should probably be further apart.
-Rob A>
Last edited by RobA; 06-21-2008 at 02:13 PM. Reason: typo
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First, it's great to see (er read about) all of the detail you have thought of when thinking about how you want to make your map, certainly more detail than I normally think about. Second, the tributaries are all snakey so the main river being more straight was just probably something overlooked (I do it too). Third, I agree, push the mountains apart a bit more, or lower them as you near the river. All in all though, with a couple of minor tweaks, it's ready for color. Good job and keep it up.
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Not much I can say beyound what has already been said. Nice map too.!
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