Jasmine Coast

[Ascension]

I tried a completely different method but still ended up in pretty much the same place...so that's cool. I tried doing something like Su Liam's recent tut but only from memory; had I actually followed it I may have had different results. This hybrid method got me going quite quickly and I had the basic map done in about 10 minutes. But because I need definable areas to create masks I had to go back and re-figure everything out and that took some time. Then I had to clean up artifacts that can still be seen in some places along the coasts (banding) and that killed a few hours. Getting the ocean right was probably the hardest part so that's why I had to re-figure things in order to mask it off. The forests went quickly, scattered dry brush, pattern overlay, textured bevel, and some color tweaks. The rivers, as always, killed most of my day. Various other experiments killed another few hours but I think I'm ready to put a bunch of dots and words on this. Heck for the first time I even have a title so that's good progress right there

[Steel General]

Lookin' good so far...

[Weero]

I really like how the forest sort of covers the rivers, though sometimes it makes it hard to follow some of those streams. Though overall, those rivers look awesome.

edit: I also just now noticed that the forests tend to follow along the rivers. Nice detail.

[Aegeri]

First have some rep

I was thinking of running a campaign in Eberron based on being shipwrecked in Xen'drik and I was looking around for a suitable map. Then I see this map and think "There is a LOT of space there". Then it dawned on me it was perfect for what I needed and I have so much room to play with.

Best of all there isn't anything labeled or named on the map, making it my playground.

This all goes to plan.

If you update the map let me know.

[Ascension]

I ran across this photo and thought that it fit perfectly with the mountainous region in my map. Now if only I could get a shot from an airplane of this spot

[Alfar]

Definately beautiful, and a great match. Good find!

There's a challenge in there somewhere... Draw a map based on this photo?

[su_liam]

I like the look of the forests. Definitely like that waterfall!
There's something about the mountains, though... It may just be a matter of taste, but they look kind of ethereal. Somewhat like a semi-transparent overlay over a flat forest texture.

Unfortunately every attempt I've made at a forest texture either overwhelmed the mountain shading or was overwhelmed by the mountain shading, and in any case was just terrible.

In any case kudos on trying out the burpwallow technique. Ten minutes? Jeebus Cripes! I wish I could go that fast.

[Aegeri]

What are you planning on changing about the map sir? It would look good with some destroyed temples and other things =D

[Ascension]

The mtns are two layers, an outer bevel of chisel soft with a big size and a second layer of inner bevel chisel soft with a small size (plus a color overlay of brown at soft light). The outer bevel looks horrible where the bevel edges meet up, forming a crease, so I put the rivers and forests on top to cover up those creases...it cuts into the sides of the mtns but I didn't really care too much about that since mtns have a treeline anyway. Here's 2 screenies, one before rivers and forests and one after.

[Ascension]

Here's an update, taken a long time to make some icons that I like and then get the colors right. There will be a key, eventually, but for now the red squares are inns, orange dots are dungeons/camps/encounter spots, light blue dots with rings are shrines, purple dots with lobes are towers, yellow-gray squares with accented corners are forts, scattered yellow-gray dots are ruins, and cities/towns/villages should be pretty obvious.

Edit -- threw some fields in, another brush that I made.