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

[Midgardsormr]

Your big river is a problem. It comes down out of the mountains in the north, and it flows okay through that pass through the Plains of Vendil, and around the hills to the east, but then instead of turning toward the sea, it continues south. Okay, well, I can see how that might happen if there's a rise in the land, but then after it heads through Rivertowne, again instead of turning east, it climbs the hills to the south and vanishes into a forest. Water won't flow uphill, so at one end or the other, this river is doing something unlikely.

Now, if you assume that Rivertowne is downstream of those hills, and this is two rivers that join somewhere east of Dorinden Rell, you can add a branch headed out to sea. I am assuming that the depiction of the width of this river indicates its importance and not its physical width, by the way, because it doesn't seem to be draining nearly big enough area to justify its size.

You're going to need a label on that feature southwest of the Plains of Vendil, as it is not at all clear what that is intended to be. It looks a bit like a dike, or perhaps a man-made cliff.

I like the style you're shooting for here, and the arrangement of features is pleasing. Try not to lose the hand-drawn feel of it when you get it into Photoshop; it is very easy to sterilize a map by making it look too clean and computer-generated.

[GenoWrites]

Midgardsormer,

That's exactly the kind of critique I'm looking for. And, The Great River Moriella (as it is named) does not have the magical ability to climb hills. I spent my 10 minute break at work today fixing that right off. Thank you! And you are correct, the river is decidedly not as large as the scale would imply, but it is quite large. So, where you say "not draining nearly big enough an area..." I'm not quite sure how to remedy that. In the book there is a bridge over the river at the top of a chasm and its described as "so far across that a soldier at one end would have difficulty distinguishing between a horse and a man at the other." So... not the several miles wide it would be if this were true to scale, but big. Any thoughts on how I can make this more realistic?

And also yes... "The Wall of Ellerion" will ultimately be labeled. I'm still tweaking with how it's ultimately going to look. And, I'm really hoping to keep the hand drawn feel when all's said and done. I just don't want it to have a kidishly drawn feel. So, I'm hoping to refine a bit in PS.

Thank you again for such an encouraging and informative critique.

Geno