WIP - Inthandonia (Warning - slight non-sexual nudity)

[wzrd]

Howdy Folks - As a newcomer here I thought I'd better get to the potentially painful step of posting my WIP so all you experts can tell me where I went wrong and what I could do better. For those who haven't read my intro thread some brief background - I'm a (mostly 3d) artist and GIMPer and my art is almost all set on the fictional planet of Inthandonia, which due to random cosmic uncertainty has a stronger magickal field than most ordinary planets. There is an over-riding story line involving Wizards, Dragons, Aliens, Vampires, minstrels, gorgeous maidens and so forth and the usual epic battles one finds in such fantasy settings. For more background info you can see my website at www.wizitch.com.
Anyway, such an epic world inevitably requires a map which inevitable leads to my posting this WIP on this most excellent forum.

Regarding the map so far - I'm aware of several shortcomings already: firstly it's probably not big enough (3024x1171) and secondly you river purists may take issue with some of my rivers. See? I've already learned a lot from you guys here!).

The landmasses were actually 3d terrains made in Vue 6 Pro Studio which I rendered from above to create my background textures. The resulting image was moved into the GIMP where everything else was done. The 3d embellishments (ships, compass, dragons etc) are all derived from high resolution 3d models which I constructed mostly using trueSpace 7.6 except for the cheeky little nymphs which I trawled from the net.

The Western continent of Deggia is pretty much mapped out in general terms and will probably only receive a little more work. The Eastern continent, home of the Thanian Empire needs considerably more development as so far the events in my ongoing story (Wizard Wars: The Chronicle of Inthandonia) have mostly happened here so I have more pre-existing locations to ...er... locate!

So, there it is - I'd appreciate any comments, criticisms or compliments from the forum as I'd like to create a nicely polished map out of this. Any suggestions or feedback what-so-ever is welcomed. I'm at the stage of needing to collapse a few of my layers (currently around 30 of 'em) as my PC is starting to struggle to keep up.

[Rythal]

I'll leave the river stuff to the river police, and the nudity to the mods (Though I doubt that will be a problem...) .

Artistically speaking, the landmasses lack a clear unity. The way the different countries/regions are filled in is so random that it is sorta an eyesore. I would suggest killing your border layers, work on the physical part of the map, and then make your regions uniformily styled (though not necessarily the same coloured).

As to the geography, it would look better if it had more contrast with the ocean.

hopes thats a start, like I said, the river people will be around shortly to help yah out with that stuff

[wzrd]

I'll leave the river stuff to the river police, and the nudity to the mods (Though I doubt that will be a problem...) .

Artistically speaking, the landmasses lack a clear unity. The way the different countries/regions are filled in is so random that it is sorta an eyesore. I would suggest killing your border layers, work on the physical part of the map, and then make your regions uniformily styled (though not necessarily the same coloured).

As to the geography, it would look better if it had more contrast with the ocean.

hopes thats a start, like I said, the river people will be around shortly to help yah out with that stuff

OK Thanks very much for that Rythal. "sorta an eyesore" is definitely not the look I'm after - and having now browsed a few of the other WIP threads here I have to agree with you. I was trying for a combination of geographical and political but I think it's pretty clear that approach isn't working - a good learning experience for me.
Thanks again, this is exactly the sort of feedback I was looking for.

[Jaxilon]

I really like the layout you are shooting for on this, it's sort of got that 3d look on some items. I think if you get the coloring down this will look pretty awesome. I'm surprised the nudies aren't mermaids though.