Sarturus - Ulthui - REVAMP [need advice]

[TaylorH]

Hello everyone. The Last time you saw my Ulthui map I chose to convey the continent's natural elements through colour, but I've decided to take it in a different direction. I've enlisted the help of a relative, a designer, and we're working on it together. I think it looks a lot more professional than my coloured attempt. So here's what we have so far:



Are the mountain formations valid? Is there any way to incorporate hills? I don't exactly know where to stand on the amount of detail. If you take Tolkien's Middle Earth map, there is very little detail in most areas and only select pockets of forest which stand out. How would I represent a mass of hills in all the northern region just below the mountains without making it too noisy? My main question in this thread is in regards to river scale. Obviously this is a continent and there are a lot of rivers on a continent, however is it viable to just have the major rivers for now? How do others attempt continent rivers? This is more a brief overview of Ulthui, but we'll make more detailed maps later on.

[lostatsea]

At this scale most rivers wouldn't show up at all . Since you have chosen to represent the mountains as hand-drawn as opposed to say photo realistic ; the other elements should be in the same style. Draw in the rivers based on importance just keep the river widths conservative. For the hills use a suitable symbol matching the mountains style and make the line work much more subdued. Tolkien detailed areas that were the most important . This is how most maps would have been historically made. After all you can't / shouldn't fill in what you don't know.

[Diamond]

I've got to admit, I like this version quite a bit more. And lostatsea is right on the money with his advice.

[TaylorH]

I've got to admit, I like this version quite a bit more. And lostatsea is right on the money with his advice.

Well of course, it's to be expected. The person I'm working with knows a lot more about design than I do so he's know making the map and I'm instructing on the geographical elements.