Map of the Twin Kingdoms of Aran and Ilan - Handdrawn

[Lingon]

@Pixie and SumnerH: To me it looks like there's a slope from the lake up to the plateau.

[Caenwyr]

@Pixie and SumnerH: To me it looks like there's a slope from the lake up to the plateau.

You're right, Lingon. Maybe I should add some stripes to indicate the more gentle slopes. Basically the idea is the following: the many small lakes are on the highest part of the plateau, the big lake forms the lowest part. In ages long gone the lake used to be far bigger, and drain to the south. But then tectonic activity created a rupture in the western mountains, which caused the large lake to shrink to its current size and abandon its former drainage canal.

That's basically the idea of that rather peculiar zone. I'm thinking of adding another cliff line to indicate the altitude of the small-lake-plateau. I just hope it won't make my map look too busy.

I'm still working on the shading of the rest of the mountains, if all goes well I'll upload an update later today.

[Caenwyr]

Hi guys, so here's the update as promised. You'll notice I shaded and highlighted every mountain on my map, and I also did some changes to the river mouths (those were a bit messy in previous updates). I haven't found a good way to work out the plateau idea yet, however.




Below you'll find two more pictures of my map, this time with the roads and city icons on 'em again. I'm still wondering which of the two versions suits the map best, especially now I'm going all 3D and stuff . Should I go for the simple dots? The simplified drawings? Or should I consider drawing micro city icons in 3D and a splash of colour?

[Ilanthar]

For cities, I tend to prefer the classic dots for a map of this scale.

[Caenwyr]

For cities, I tend to prefer the classic dots for a map of this scale.

Actually, so do I. I don't think I break too much with the style of the map now it's getting coloured anyway. Nevertheless I did a quick (and probably dirty) test of yet another type of icon. Just a short update of two more options:



Another set of handdrawn icons (left), and some rather newish looking white icons with a black dropshadow and edge (right). I'd do my text labels in the same way in that case: white text, slim black edge, black dropshadow. What do you think?

[Ilanthar]

With these new test, I change my mind and vote for the handdrawn icons on the left
The other one is too "white" and the dropped shadow feels like too modern and clashes with the rest of the map imho.

[seredemia]

I'm actually really conflicted with what icons I like the best... I like the classic red dots since they fit this map really well... But I also like the red drawn icons as I like to see the little town or city drawings... Although, I'm not a fan of the white drop shadow ones since I don't think the colour white stands out as much as red does.

[Pixie]

Handdrawn black icons, for sure. I'm just not sure if they wouldn't look more natural if the line their drawn with is as fine as the line drawing the mountains. Since that is already pretty thin, it would seem like it's the artist's finest feather. The slight blur looks off, but that's just me.

Overall, coming really awesome, you're holding a winner ticket with this one.

Side note: do you need this many towns, evenly spread? Try taking a few or adding more in specific areas..

[flocko]

I'm in favor of either of the red icons. Though I think the differences between the dots are more easily recognized. The hand drawn black icons don't have the same sharpness as the other black lines in the map and that ruins them for me.

The distribution of the towns seems a little too even to me as well. I'd expect more towns in proximity to major cites, natural resources or along important roads/trade routes between either of the former.

[flocko]

Forget what I said about the towns. I hadn't seen your reference map. With the other rivers in place and the different road types it makes more sense to me now.