Le Terre Conosciute - La Locanda della Quercia Incantata

[fabio p]

I have done this map for free, a few months ago for a writer, Daniela Ferrero Pozzer, who has written a novel called “La locanda della Quercia Incantata” (meaning: "The Inn of the Enchanted Oak"). Now that the novel is out, it's time to show the map.
It's not a map of the Inn, but a map of the world (known as "Goldivigna" by the name of a city or as "Le Terre Conosciute" meaning "The known Lands" ) where the story take place.
I used photoshop over a previous sketch.

For the mountains I used a personal brush set heavily inspired by the maps of the illustrious cartographer Bleau: mostly hand tracing, scanning and messing around with photoshop, a long, interminable time working for a hobbyst like me, that could have taken only few hours for a skilled artist.
For most of the other elements photoshop shapes have been my friends. I’m happy with cities (that I already used in another map of mine), much less with the towers in the desolation.
The ornaments on the frame are an aborted attempt at making a celtic knot, but I sticked with them as I found them pleasant at last.

The overall quality of the map is surely debatable, but as at first it wasn’t planned any map and as I did it as a work carried out in friendship, well, the final result has been considered acceptable!

“La locanda della Quercia Incantata” is a novel written by Daniela Ferrero Pozzer and published by A.CAR. Edizioni. All rights reserved.

[Lingon]

Debatable? Acceptable? No no no no no. That's a really good map! Sure, some things could be improved, but overall it should look excellent in the book. I realize that you're not looking to change it any more, but if you want feedback anyway to implement in your next maps, here are a couple of (small) things that struck me:
The coastline is too thick compared to all other elements – it'd look more coherent if it was thinner, or if it faded into the land.
The cities have the opposite issue; they'd match the mountains and trees better with a thicker outline.
The rivers could curve back and forth a lot more; even in really flat terrain, rivers look like old telephone wires.

But yeah, a very good map either way

[Humabout]

I may be a newbie, but that map looks cool to me. I know rivers should be more curly, but this map strikes me more as a relational one than a realistic depiction of the landscape. So I think the straighter rivers work for the style. I do agree with Lingon that the coastlines are a bit heavy. Still, awesome map!

[Ilanthar]

That's a fine map and I like those mountains. I agree with lingon and humabout though, the coastline is far too thick.

[fabio p]

Thank you guys.

Of course every feedback is really appreciated!

As I look at my map now after what you said, the coastline seems too thick to me too. The rivers follow the path of the sketch that was given to me. Maybe I should have taken more freedom drawing them, but I chose to stay as close as possible to the original idea of the author. Though, I did change some big inconsistencies in the way the rivers flowed in the sketch.