Map of the Twin Kingdoms of Aran and Ilan - Handdrawn

[Caenwyr]

Hi all,

A really small update here (going on tiny). While I still have loads of work to do what with the mountains and all, I decided I should also start thinking of icons. I'll be using 4 levels of towns/cities. What do you think of the following icons?

[Freodin]

The "higher" levels seem a little to delicate for a map of your size and scale. How about using a square variant of the two "lower" levels?

[Caenwyr]

You're absolutely right. And using squares is actually a really good idea! How about this?



Or rather this?



Personally I'm more for the "full then empty" option (the first one). That seems to fit better visually.

[Falconius]

I'm not sure they both work and they are both sort of confusing. I'd lean towards the first option personally. The confusion results from using two different mechanisms to indicate size but not using them in sequence but rather having them mixed together.

[Caenwyr]

I feel the same way - that's why I went with the all round icons at the beginning. I believe I can make the first 3 levels of those work without much trouble, and then maybe add a square version of the biggest icon for the capitals (there's only two). That would give me this:



Not much room for confusion there, is there? Or maybe I should just go for solid circles in several sizes (he said depressedly)

[Falconius]

That looks good to me, it eliminates all confusion as far as I can tell.

[Caenwyr]

Okay, here's another significant update (using the icons I proposed above). Drew in another mountain range, some rivers and even a first attempt at drawing the forests. What do you guys think?

### latest WIP###

[Jalyha]

I like the forests. And your mountains are growing!

I don't know if I like the icons. I know they are supposed to be visible... probably draw the eye, but they look... I don't know how to say this?

To me it looks like they came from a different map.

Maybe it's because the ink is darker on the icons, than the mountains/forest... even the coast. I feel like a very dark gray would be better than a black?

Or maybe that's why I do pictures instead of maps I'm more interested in the scenery...

and I see things weird >.<

[madcowchef]

Love the general look of it, but have to agree with Jalyha about the icons. The features seem like that of an older map but the icons seem overly clean and modern by comparison.

[jbgibson]

Those are some mighty tasty mountains - looking good! Something about the layout of some of your foothills forest make the tongues extending into valleys look like they're curving down instead of running up a bit into the crevices. Does that make sense, what I'm seeing?

I don't have much opinion about these city icons, but i have a thought - since the rest of your symbology is all 3-d, how would it look if you used some kind of 3-d location icons? Maybe shaded balls? Maybe color indicating size? The village dots are almost 3-d anyway since they are tiny.