My second offering, "Reeth"

[NedS298]

Hi everyone
I hope I've taken a step in the right direction with this one; I spent a lot more time on it
And, as usual - feedback would be appreciated.



the resolution had to be lowered significantly for me to be able to fit it on here, sorry everyone

[fabio p]

The thing that leaps to the eye, is the choice of this red so intense for the labeling of the major geographic regions of your kingdom. I would say that a choice of a less vibrant color could be better; you can also try to play with transparency and maybe decrease the size of the labelling. Maybe the green of the swampland is too intense, but that can be an already more passable artistic choice, in my opinion.
Being the representation of a swamp land, I find it acceptable that there are no mountains; the water streams (are they mainly rivers? Or are there also some creeks?), though, seem to come out of nowhere; ok, I'm not an expert in marshy regions, but something tells me that the hydrography of the water courses must be reconsidered, especially the waterways.
I like the idea of the shields; I would also add a border to the map.

[Caenwyr]

I agree with fabio with regards to the labels: imho they are quite a bit too big, and the colors don't really need to be so jarring for them to stand out: human eyes always look for structure, and they tend to find text easily enough. Smaller, less obtrusive text would be just fine, I think. The way it stands now, all I can SEE is text, and you didn't put all that work in your map for it to become invisible afterwards, did you?

Same goes for the legend on the right: less is more, Ned. Smaller is better. Your map is the main subject here, the rest is only of secondary importance. The title can be a bit bigger, but it's still too big here. And your compass rose seems terrible upscaled, check out all the pixelation! I'm sure you can find a better one online: simple or elaborate, the choice is yours!

There doesn't seem to be much structure to your land masses. I assume there's lowland, and higher areas, dykes maybe, but I don't see any of those here. It'd be great if you'd add those in another update!

You don't seem to be breaking any major rules that would make me go all River Police (check out this magnificent thread if you want to know more), so no complaints on that part. Compliments!

I also like the effect you used on the water bodies. It's a very uncommon effect, but I think I like the look of it! The only remark I have is the fact that where there's no twirling going on (the sea), the texture is generally vertical, while for a body of water horizontal strokes would probably be better.

All in all, with a few small tweaks you can make this into a good map, and with some more work you'll probably turn it into a great one!