WIP - Unnamed World Map
Okay, I'm brand new here, but thought I'd jump right in and seek some critiques. I've been working on this map for a long time - a few days here, a few days there, for about a year - and up until just yesterday I didn't have a clue where to go next. This is my first true attempt at creating a complete world map - all continents, all geographical features, political and regional markers, cities/villages/dungeons/towers... The whole shebang. So, before I get posting any images, let me outline my thinking (that way the smarter ones here can point out the flaws).
Firstly, I wanted to have one document that contained the entire world map, in the highest resolution of the smaller maps. That is, if I want to show a close up map of a certain area, about as big as a country, I didn't want to have to make multiple resolutions of the same area and keep them in separate docs. So, I didn't want a 2000x2000 pixel document of my country, and a 2000x2000 pixel document of the world... I kind of just want a *looks at document* 24900x12000 document that I can zoom in on. Of course, this is probably an idiot move on my part, as the document is quite large (850 mb at last count), and sometimes heavy to work with. Thus far, it hasn't proven too much of a hassle, so for now I'll probably keep the humongous file.
Secondly, I'm working in Photoshop CS5. It's always worked pretty well for me, and though there may be other programs out there, I like to stick with what I'm familiar with as much as possible (to save time learning new stuff). That said, I've been working pretty heavy layers, and generally keep a "backup" folder in my layers which contain original layers of things before they're merged. Just writing that tells me I should probably keep separate docs for that, instead of just having one massive doc.
Hmm... Thirdly, I guess I'm trying to go for a certain look/feel to the map. I want something close in color-scheme and detail as the attached map of a place you probably recognize. I could not, for the life of me, figure out how the heck to do that... I tried going a different artistic direction at one point (as you'll see in later replies), but it just doesn't feel right in my gut. It was actually this pursuit of a more realistic map that led me to the Cartographer's Guild, which frankly is a Godsend.
So, that's basically it. Please Examine And Critique Honestly (PEACH)
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