Harabar - Kingdoms of the North

[RobA]

First off, welcome to the Guild, and thanks for sharing some of your work.

I personally like this map, with only a few quibbles.

Pro's:
- Overall colour balance
- Consistent but differing use of colour for labels
- Easy to read font
- Very nice coastline shapes
- Nice mountains (are they standard CC3 clip-art?)

Con's:
- Meaningless scale bar
- City icons (I would prefer dots as you had considered)
- No borders (I see names of regions, but no defined borders. It makes the region naming confusing to me)
- My number one pet peeve, rivers that split as they flow downstream.

Though like I said, overall, this is a very nice map. It is no surprise you are able to sell these if it is representative of your work. Also, it is a style that you could easily reuse to main consistency with a whole set of maps.

-Rob A>

[ravells]

Hi Ilwan,

Welcome to the guild. It's interesting, but your map is an example of what CC does best. It's simple but very effective. Your map has wonderful clarity and it's got just the right level of detail in it for the style you've used. I kind of like the idea of not having definitive borders (gives the impression that this is a slightly wild place where there are no definitive borders).

I have to say though I think you have a naturally good design eye rather than doing anything fantastically unusual with the software. I suspect that you could produce wonderful things with just a pencil and a piece of paper! I would suggest that you really stretch the software the next time round and see what loveliness you produce!

Ravs

[Ilwan]

First off, welcome to the Guild, and thanks for sharing some of your work.

Thx. I´ve been lurking a little once in a while earlier, but plan on participating some more in the future.

Con's:
- Meaningless scale bar
- City icons (I would prefer dots as you had considered)
- No borders (I see names of regions, but no defined borders. It makes the region naming confusing to me)
- My number one pet peeve, rivers that split as they flow downstream.

-Rob A>

Yes, the scale is still only decorative (and that happens often to me). I might try to edit the map to "dotted" cities. I usually never draw borders on my medieval fantasy maps. There are no clear borders in my world anyway, especially not on this map which shows a rather savage part of the campaign world. There are seperations of the small kingdoms, by marches, but they are rather areas, than lines.

And yes, I understand your number one pet peeve. Ii happens all the time, although I know it.......it´s like a little devil inside my mind convincing me to split them.

Hi Ilwan,

Welcome to the guild. It's interesting, but your map is an example of what CC does best. It's simple but very effective. Your map has wonderful clarity and it's got just the right level of detail in it for the style you've used. I kind of like the idea of not having definitive borders (gives the impression that this is a slightly wild place where there are no definitive borders).

I have to say though I think you have a naturally good design eye rather than doing anything fantastically unusual with the software. I suspect that you could produce wonderful things with just a pencil and a piece of paper! I would suggest that you really stretch the software the next time round and see what loveliness you produce!

Ravs

Thx for the kind words. I am very happy about that you mention the "design eye". I have always had more fun creating a good looking image, rather than an accurate map. That´s also why I sometime struggle, when doing contract work. I also try to change styles as often as possible. I am not good with pen and paper at all, but I hope I have a flair for what looks good and I try to use that in my maps.

[Ilwan]

Here are the sheet effect settings:

Sea: Blur (Blur radius 5)
Land: Glow (Outside, Color 79, Strenght 1, Blur radius 100): Glow (Inside, Color 101, Strenght 0, Blur radius 50)