NOV/DEC 2014 Lite Challenge: A New "Fabiana"

[fabio p]

Fabiana has been my first ever attempt at doing a map, more of an experiment than something to take seriously. I most only used brushes and premade elements, while now I always try to do most things by myself. I never had the time to practice how I would like and, between Fabiana and my next maps, there’s been a long time hiatus. Recently (one year or so) I became active here on the guild and my skills are slightly improving.
As my aim with the original map was to recreate a hand drawn feel, this new version will be a digitally (mostly) hand drawn map. I will also try and correct some geographical naivety and add some more needed features. I’ve been really busy this recent times, I hope I’ll be able to finish this entry. As it will be a “heavy” entry (megabyte speaking), I will show the old map only in my first post.
Enough said! Time to see what’s sorting out of this challenge. Hope to see many contestants, even if most of the “great ones” have golden compass and can’t join.

The old map (you can also see it at my deviantart page):



And my

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[Domino44]

It looks really nice so far! I like the first map, I think your use of the brushes were really good. The newer map is looking really good! The hand draw elements are nicely done, and the shading on the mountains looks great! I really like the mountains and rivers style you chose to do. In my opinion the colors blend to well together I think some more contrast especially with the land and sea would help it a lot.

[JonPin]

I like how light the map is. It reminds me of old Asian paintings.

[Bogie]

Nice work fabio p. Looking forward to watching this develop.

[fabio p]

Thank you guys!

A little update.
Now there are forests; these are my first time isometric blob forests; there are also my first ever isometric city icons: as this is a challenge, I’m firstly challenging myself out of my comfort zone (two dimensional city icons and trees).
I also slightly changed colours: the water bodies are now more teal-ish , to tell them apart more easily from forests, the terrain is greener; I hope there’s now more contrast between the sea and the land, as Domino44 suggested.
As always, I’m open to suggestions and even pitiless criticism, don’t hesitate to touch on sore points.

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[- Max -]

Everything's looking good Fabio. Though, even going with a soft color scheme/ambience, you might want to add some contrast to your map to avoid it looking too "flat".

[Domino44]

Nice forest! The city icons look nice as well.

[Francissimo]

Nice map fabio and for a first try with those technique it's already really good. Small suggestion: have you tried a inner shadow/ drop shadow effect on your city icons layer? I'm no expert with that style but i would try that on my icons if i was on that map

[Ilanthar]

Really nice. The cities icons are very well drawn. I second - Max - about a little more contrast.

[fabio p]

Thank you guys for all your nice and useful suggestions.
@Max and Ilanthar: I increased contrast even more, not too much though, to preserve the soft ambience atmosphere.
@Francissimo: You’re right, I was too thinking to add a sort of shading if only to let the icons merge better into the land. I didn’t obtain great result with the drop shadow effect though; so, at least for the moment, I just individually cast a really soft grey shadow under every icon.
@Domino44: you’re newly acquired forest skills have been an inspiration to try isometric forests here. I was jealous !
I also added some other town where needed, two or three places of interest (more to come if I have time) and there’s a hint of what heraldry will be.
I fear labelling, when time will come: I feel like it’s one of my most pronounced weaknesses.
As always, feel free to criticize and suggest.

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