I Likey a lot Have some rep for such a nice atlas-y map in your first post
I do wish that your woods would stand out a bit more from the green background texture you are using. I do like the glow for the political boundaries, but you also have a glow around the land. My suggestion would to be to use a thinner glow for the boundary, as well as a thinner boundary line itself, and make sure that the colors you use contrast with the coast glow. As it stands there can be some confusion with a few of the color choices.
Overal, nice work and would love to see more. Welcome to the Guild, The Mappiest Place on the Web.
Art Critic = Someone with the Eye of an Artist, Words of a Bard, and the Talent of a Rock.
Please take my critiques as someone who Wishes he had the Talent
It looks nice, and I'll give you a bit of rep as well for being willing to contribute from the start - Thanks, and welcome to the Guild!
Does the really-dark coloration-blotchiness have a meaning? It dulls down the map - if there were other details they'd be obscured. The photorealistic terrain clashes with the strong linen background texture - one says 'computer' and the other says 'hand-done'. The mountains are nicely done, though.
It's a great start to a mapping mania - I hope you're well and truly hooked :-).
Thanks guys. Great feedback! I'll try to get around to tweaking this today, before putting in the superficial details like cities and whatnot. It was very much a learning experience - I followed a very fine couple of tutorials, but I suspect I screwed up some of the sections (pretty sure the mountains aren't.. meant to look like that) and I might have gotten the colouration a bit wrong (I'm having issues with.. gradients). I think I could tweak the contrast on one of the layers a bit to cut down on the blotchiness. Hmm. I'll have a play and put the results up.
Thanks again!
Great looking map. I especially like the mountain ranges you've done. Rep for you!
Welcome to the Guild WhatTheBlazes! I think Korash covered some of what I was going to say, but it is a nice first map over all. Look forward to seeing more of your work in the days to come.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh