[WIP] Near complete second map - The West End

[Nick B]

I've been working on my second map titled "The West End". It's just a fantasy idea, not planning on using it for anything other than practice. The compass is a placeholder (borrowed from my first map) and the title format is somewhat temporary. I plan on making a few tweaks and touchups, maybe do something with the ocean, include a border, and label the map over the weekend. Any input or criticisms are welcome.

I was shooting for an "end of the world" theme with this map. Though the region seems bountiful, the sheer cliffs that cascade into a violent ocean and the stark inland barrier that hides the earth-devouring granite expanse suggest these people are in great peril.

[Wingshaw]

Really well done map, Nick.

Highlights for me are the dunes, coastal waves, and compass rose.

Areas that I think are problematic:
--the lower slopes of the western mountains don't blend very smoothly into the desert/plains areas
--especially when zoomed out, the forests have obviously been stamped on, as they possess that tell-tale repeated pattern. I'm also not sure they suit the painterly style of the rest of the map
--the cliffs, likewise, don't suit the map style. They look too cartoony, where the rest of the image is more like a painting
--the flocks of birds are a nice touch, but it is not especially clear what they are, so including them might just be confusing
--I think the mountains would look better if their overall shapes were craggier. What you have done looks good, but the eastern range seems to rise as a single smooth ridge, whereas in reality it should have crevasses, jutting peaks, deep valleys, and spurs of high land, all illustrated, in this style, with shadows and highlights
--the title format is, as you seem to recognise, problematic

Overall, really great job. I hope those comments are of some use to you.

THW

[Nick B]

Thanks for the post.

The cliffs are, in fact, temporary. Filling them with brown was one of the last things I did. I plan on giving them the same treatment as the rest of them map, complete with erosion and offshore jutting rocks.

I agree about the trees. I'm wondering if making a few more "stamps" with greater variety including color and size and redoing my tree layer will help. I wanted to avoid doing the "green mush" forests in this map but I might still revert to it if I can't make the clusters work. I do need practice with my green mush...

I'm kind of straddling across two different styles here. I have the detail work of a hand painted piece but much of the assets still retain that symbolic feel of a small scale regional map. That's why I went with the "single, shaded peaks" route of a Tolkienesque map albeit with greater detail. I was thinking about adding clouds that cover up much of that western face so just the peaks shoot through. I do have some room on the west face and eastern expanse to play around a bit so maybe I'll try some stuff out if I can retain my motivation for this map before moving on. I'm about half done with a giant similar styled painted map that covers multiple regions, and it needs attention!

[Nick B]

Updated some stuff, added labels plus touchups. Still not set on the title format, I may incorporate it into a border somehow. I plan on doing some work on the ocean and offshore details, too.

[Cuin]

HI Nick,

I also really like the dunes!

When I zoom in the sharpness of text is different for different text sets. Larger text looks a little blurry compared to very sharp smaller fonts. They don't look pixelated. did you blur them? I think all text should match in sharpness. I like the softness of the larger text myself, but next to the sharp small stuff...

[fabio p]

Wow, I like how this map is progressing, and i must say your attention to small details and eye candies is surely a plus.
And there's a also a"Twin Peaks", for Lynch's sake!

[Nick B]

Thanks for the posts.

Labels and text aren't quite finalized and I agree with the sharpness of the smaller fonts. My goal is to have labels that integrate well into the map while retaining perfect legibility. I messed around a bit with them to gain a more coherent theme.

I also added some finer details such as offshore rocks and random tidbits to spice things up somewhat.

I decided to drop the granite expanse and opted for a mountain range. I did this to introduce some variety into the map since it was looking a bit drab. The snow-covered peaks really shine amidst the otherwise earthy tones. The mist pouring through the splits and crevices of the mountains should liven things up.

I will probably drop the sheer coastline and introduce ports, rockslides, and beaches to the edge of the continent. I want to bring life to the map and the current coast really limits what I can do .

Thanks for the feedback.

[Deadshade]

This second one looks much more like hand painted. You did it with software only or a mix hand + soft ?

[Nick B]

This is made 100% through Photoshop and a Wacom Pen & Touch. I'm trying to accomplish an efficient hand painted look that doesn't take me forever to manifest. I think I'm getting better but it still takes a lot of time and the files get pretty big.

For my next, and probably final, iteration I took a closer look at the compressed JPEG I am presenting as my product and realized there was a lot of artifacting and loss of detail in my uploaded images. To combat this I modified the map not based on the original file but what would be seen after compression. This meant smoothing color transitions in the coastal details and especially the trees, which I redid completely in the northern forest. Some patterns are still visible bit it seems less obvious to me.

I feel like I'm wrapping this map up. I may use it to experiment with forests, aesthetic cloud cover and weather effects that do not interfere with map interpretation, and reducing the visual cues of stamp tool use, but I probably won't change much of it in the near future. It's off to other maps.

Creating interesting, original decorative borders and elements such as key frames, text boxes and insets has proven to be the most difficult aspect of map creation for me. I think I might go with the hand drawn on parchment look with all of these elements for my next map, just to get some practice.