Stormmount Region

[ravells]

Funnily enough I noticed the spikes too. I believe that the reason for that is that you might have used a 'chain line' (well that's what it's called in Serif Drawplus) which draws symbols alsong a path. They are great for covering large areas like this, but not 100% reliable. You might just want to rasterise and take the eraser to the overlaps but it's not a biggie, I still think the map is stunning and I love the original way in which you've mixed in the elements.

[MadLetter]

Nice piece of work!

I would like to know how you made the map Seems like a style I could use

[Tareth]

Thanks for all the great comments and suggestions. Here's an updated version.

I've increased the text size on most labels by one step. Also increased the fade on colors and elements below the text labels. Reduced the opacity on the ridgelines to 60% which makes them a little less overwhelming and also faded them more in some spots. Then displaced the text and applied a very light blur. After all of that, I think the text is much easier to read especially when it's printed out.

I also got rid of the 'noisy' lake outline (which was bugging me as well, so thanks for the comment Pyrandon) and went with a very light stroke which I think works a better. Finally went through and got rid of most of those funky ridgelines (Something I had noticed but totally forgot to eliminate, likely due to staring at the map for too long. Thanks for the catch.)

The map was produced entirely in Photoshop (my first attempt at really working with the program) with many layers, much trial and error.

Madletter: I would check out Butch's tutorials at zombienirvana.com. Honestly the basic techniques I used are based off of those and I'm sure his explanations working with PS will be much better than my own since I'm still new to the software. However, if you have specific questions about what I did here, I'll do my best to give a useful answer.

Thanks all,

Tareth

[Midgardsormr]

Are your contours supposed to represent a specific elevation step? There are five contour lines from the Grumash Forest basin to Stormmount Peak at 10,030 feet and seven from the Grumash basin to the 9980 ft peak of the East Twin.

I like the style of this map quite a bit, and I'm looking forward to seeing what more you come up with.

[The Cartographist]

Tareth - I, too, really like the map.
My one critique (purely a subjective opinion, of course) is that I think that the contour spikes are TOO big. It's probably hard to fix, but I would shrink all of them to the size of those at the top of Thunder Peak. That change would stop them from dominating the sides of the mountains.

[Tareth]

Midgardsormr: Originally I had specific elevations for the contours. I think the problem happened as I added a few more contours for 'artistic' reasons here and there and then didn't adjust elevations accordingly. Fortunately I can still go in and change those fairly easily. Now to recheck all of those heights.

Cartographist: Having finally got this map to a finished (or at least almost finished) stage, I have to agree that the ridgelines would benefit by being a bit smaller. Since this is the first time I've created a map in this style, it was hard to judge how big to make them. However, I don't know of anyway to easily reduce the size at this point, so I'll likely leave it, but remember the lesson as I get started on the next region.

Thanks for the feedback.

Tareth

[tjp123]

Astounding map! I love the style and attention to detail. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work. You are definitely one to watch out for.

Thumbs up, really.