W.I.P map for upcoming novel... would love critique before starting in Photoshop

[gbsilverio]

This looks fantastic, both from an artistic and practical viewpoint! I hope you keep making maps even after you publish your novel, would be great to see what else you come up with, especially after improving even more.

Cheers!

[Bogie]

Great Map, Send More!

[arsheesh]

It is just amazing the amount of progress you have made on this. That is a true and proper fantasy map. Have some rep !!

My sentiments exactly! You ought to be very proud of what you've accomplished. Great work.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[kestrelgrey]

Love them - now I just have to get a copy of your novel ^-^ Hope you keep making more of these.

[Midgardsormr]

Fantastic! Very well done. There are a couple of places where you might mask out the lines to help keep the text legible (Cairemia and Vandaris), but even without that touch, this is a very impressive map.

[GenoWrites]

Thank you, every one, for your kind remarks. I appreciate them a lot. Actually even more than I realized I would. When I read them it bolstered my confidence in my upcoming novel. So, Thanks. I needed that. (and I'm also amazed at the progress I made on it. All of the tutorials and advice I found here were amazingly helpful.)

This will probably be my last work in progress post, and I'll post the finished map in the next couple of days along with information about the book I made it for. Thanks Kestrelgrey for expressing interest I do currently have an e-book short story in the same universe available on Amazon. It's called How to be a Hero. I originally wrote it for my nephew as a birthday present because he loves to read, but it became the back story for one of the characters in the book. So, I decided to publish it along with a sample chapter of the upcoming novel. I'm going to do a free promo on the short story next week some time. So, I'll put the dates in the finished map post. um... yeah... anyway... I rambled there a bit. On to W.I.P. questions...

So... last critique request: As I stated before, the e-book will likely use the color version while the print book will have the grayscale. I'm struggling with the deciding how muted or vibrant to make this map. So here are two examples of what I'm looking at. Would love input (also as a sidebar I'm just curious if the vibrancy of the color influences what sort of Climate you would expect? ... just curious) Okay... no more ado...

Here they are:


&

and for good measure, here's the grayscale


Once again... thank you for all your input.

Geno

[gbsilverio]

I personally prefer it less vibrant. In my opinion, it enhances the weathered feel, and that is pretty important to me.

Anyway, I'm looking forward t hearing about your novel as well as the finished map!

See ya!

[arsheesh]

They are all lovely, but I prefer the more vibrant one myself. Just goes to show that people have different tastes. Go with the one that you like best. And congrats on finishing your first map here, it is a winner.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[jtougas]

I agree with Arsheesh. I like the vibrant one. Pick the one YOU like you can't go wrong with any of them.

[Chashio]

I could go either way, but my preference might tip me toward the muted colors. Just to even the poll, in case you were having trouble deciding your favorite. haha

One thing you may want to watch out for is the difference in values (light dark/contrast) of the forests and water bodies. The colors are very similar between them, too, but my eyes are finding it especially hard to keep them separated in the greyscale version since the only real difference is that the forests have trunks... vs. in the previous wip, you kept all of the trees lighter than the water.