Hm...typically, the smithy wouldn't be so close to residences, due to the noise involved. Also, I would think the mayor's house would be nearer the "citizen" population, in the houses, versus the "migrant" population, in Manuel's.
Hm...typically, the smithy wouldn't be so close to residences, due to the noise involved. Also, I would think the mayor's house would be nearer the "citizen" population, in the houses, versus the "migrant" population, in Manuel's.
The dirt roads and paths look great and the layout is great too. The drop shadows on the buildings look a little too blurred to my eyes or maybe too dark. IDK theres something about the shadows that look off to me. Is there an option in gimp to have precise vs. softer drop shadows? photoshop guy here.
Our sense of the stability of the earth is an illusion due to the shortness of our lives.
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah, the shadows need a little work, but I somehow combined the layers wrongly and changing it now would be difficult. Like you, I think they could be better, but I'm not sure how to make them better. Can anyone tell me how large a village house might be? These seem a bit small, but I'm not sure. All the sources I find say they should be small, but they don't give exact size ranges.
For more room you could straighten out the river a bit. So it isn't such a peninsula.
I think Ravells' comment about color is the biggest problem I see. My eyes go right to the tombs and the trees, I'd recolor both to brown. I don't think a river bank is necessary, I'd consider lowering the line on the river though its much thicker than anything else and already well set off by its darker color. Your farm land near the cartouche is a bit more detailed than most other elements on the map and patterned enough to grate a bit on the eye. Maybe a dark brown rather than a white background around your parchment edge would look better, currently it looks like its sitting on a clean modern white kitchen counter. Attempts at constructive criticism aside I love the general feel of it. The dreary colors, town layout, and scale you've chosen for the village are all great.