The Black Archipelago

[Dysprosium]

Well, this is my first map as well as my first post on this forum, so I'd like to take this chance to say hi.
As for the map, it was made in GIMP and is honestly more something that I would consider a practice work, so feedback on how it looks and what I could do to improve my next map would be nice.

[ravells]

Hi Dyspro, that is a really good first map! The main thing that comes to mind for me is that the picture lacks contrast (not sure if that is intentional).
Try this: open the 'levels' slider and move the right hand triangle to the right edge of the histogram graph. That will cure the contrast problem but give you a very bright saturated picture. Then open the HSL adjustment tool (I don't use GIMP but I'm sure it has one) and desaturate the picture a bit. It may or may not give you what you're looking for but it's worth having a play just to see the effects you can get.

The next thing that occurs is that the mountains don't look quite right. Check out the numerous mountain tutorials on the site (Pasis' excellent tutorial is the most popular) and maybe try that for the mountains.

All in all a very good start! The key is to keep on trying new stuff. You may not need it for this map, but it might be useful for future maps.

[Dysprosium]

Thanks! I can see what you mean about the contrast issue, I didn't actually notice it when I was making it. I'll definitely try to make my next map look better.

[Tigon]

Great start Dyspro. The currents through those channels would be fairly fearsome I reckon! Good luck to the sailors in those parts.

[jbgibson]

A map in your first post - way to go! And it's a good start too. I think the issue with the mountains is it looks like you've generated a screen full of random roughness and then clipped it with land shapes, rather than the specific roughness of a set of hills and mountains causing land to stick up from the sea. For that matter, maybe it's the contrast issue Ravells pointed out, but I keep getting an illusion that the land is below sea level.

The roughness being a bit random, some of your rivers don't match -- like they go up and over hills. Tricky water you have there :-).

Keep at it it - you've got some good stuff going on. By the way - welcome to the Guild!