Wow. That was exhausting. I used four or five different name generators, plus Michael Grant's 'Guide to the Ancient World'. Also added some simple forests and major roads.
You can also just use a lot of real names. Sure, you might want to stay away from a dozen or so really famous ones, but you should still be able to find a goodly list of names to get you started.
Wow. That was exhausting. I used four or five different name generators, plus Michael Grant's 'Guide to the Ancient World'. Also added some simple forests and major roads.
Very nice and clean job as always!
The landshapes are very pleasing to my eyes (as almost always with your maps, D) and the mountains, as i already said, are very fitting.
The forests though... ugh. I think in a map where you have a realistic representation of the mountains, those abstracted placeholders for forests do not work at all (style-clash!). I hope you'll reconsider and do more realistically represented forests (for example through closely put together tree-icons or something similar).
I'm trapped in Darkness,
Still I reach out for the Stars
i concur with Eilathen on the landshape. Your maps have always very nice ones, well balanced between lands and seas.
Thanks. I like 'em too, but... I think Eilathen is right. They clash with the mountains.
I bought it years ago, but a quick look at AmazonUS shows 35 copies, starting as low as $0.06.Oh, and how did you get a hold of that book? Did you buy it? I suspect it might be very helpful for my current project.
One thing you could do with this minimalist forest representation, or some similar effect that's low on busy-ness, is to show forests running up into the mountains. Many major ranges are virtually carpeted, yet using mutually exclusive symbols leaves a landscape looking like all forests are flat and all mountains are bare.
If the clash is that these area tints look more mechanical than handmade, maybe you could do the same thing with some mildly blotchy washes - unsaturated green maybe, and light enough to not compete with the labels?
Even as is, this already looks really good!
I'm still deciding how I want to do the forests (will probably revert to tree icons), but in the meantime I've started working on some sigils for the various nations. The sword & shield icons at the top of the two boxes are vector clipart from here: Image Of Shield And Crossed Swords Royalty Free Cliparts, Vectors, And Stock Illustration. Image 12889384.
You can see from the layout that I'm copying one of my cartoheroes.
Wonderful as always Diamond. I am such a huge fan of your work
I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....
Finished Maps
Kingdom Of Shendenflar Campaign Setting (WIP)
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