Talaan Shard

[Lezales]

Hey everyone !

As I'm putting my other project which I posted here a month ago on hold, I've started to work on another project. A multiverse where each world is called a Shard. A shard of the former world. I won't go too much into detail here as it is in the early stages but I got several good ideas I'm planning to build upon.

One of those shard I've made a simple map of. The Shard is called Talaan. I started to Photoshop it, I only got the colors blocked in but as it is the first time I'm putting real colors in this kind of thing (or the first time I'm working with a scanned drawing) I thought I would draw upon the expertise of CG !

So here it is. Any tips/criticism is highly appreciated.

[AlexSchacher]

Awesome and unique map so far. Reminds me of skies of arcadia. I personally have no criticism but i am looking forward to seeing how it develops

[Ghostman]

So a shard is kind of like a flying continent? Pretty cool. The lower left portion of the land looks awkward, the way it seems to be sloping downwards, yet has rivers running what appears to be uphill toward the lake. The presense of the mountains near the edge of the land is not enough to counter this impression. Because of the flat green color fill the only real clues as to the shape of the terrain are the outlines, which might be the cause.

[Lezales]

New version. I've colored a few more elements, added shadows and gradient to put some shape to the land. I'm wondering what my next steps will be. I gotta get a background but I'm not yet sure in what those Shards float. Not space. Void ? Simple in an infinite sky ?

@Ghostman: Yes. To make it simple, the world shattered and huge shards of it went flying in whatever they're flying in. With years, that condition accentuated their atmospheric differences, so all the shards are very different. In the same train of thought, cultural differences have been accentuated by being seperated for so long. People can also move from one shard to the other, although I've not yet decided how difficult or simply how it is done. I have a lot to define.

As for the slope, I think it's only an optical illusion as the rivers on the lower plateau are not in the same angle as the ones on the upper plateau, make it feel like there's a slope. But yeah, I understand. To be honest, I got no idea where the water goes or where it comes from, and honestly, I don't care that much when I'm working on a space-floating piece of land

[flocko]

This is pretty! The texture on the grass makes me think there are clouds above or perhaps other shards. However I think the shadows make the cliffs look a bit flat by comparison. This is not necessarily a bad thing. How it works out will depend on what you do for the background.

[AlexSchacher]

Still looking great, I love the shadows.

[Lezales]

Actually, it is not grass ! It is supposed to be jungles. I've yet to determine to make it look like a jungle !

[Viking]

Intriguing concept!