WIP - First attempt at a map, feedback appreciated! ^.^

[Wingshaw]

Sorry I didn't reply earlier, Svea. I've got a really bad internet connection.

First, the borders: I made them simply by drawing lines using a standard brush, with the hardness set to 100%, colour white. I drew them on a layer set to overlay, and with opacity ~70%. I think I then added an outerglow to the layer, too. It isn't the only way to do things, but it works well and is quick to do.

Second, the mountains: those are just suggestions (and, honestly, I didn't put a lot of time into it). Check around and you'll find plenty of material on CG and the web about mountain geology. Or, just look at a map of Earth. That's what I usually do.

Third, the oceans: after looking at that alteration to your map, I decided I didn't like the style of the sea, much, although I think the colours work. Here's how I did it:
--create three layers (water deep, water medium, water shallow), and stack them so that deep is below medium, and medium is below shallow.
--use the eye-dropper tool to select the colour on one of the darkest parts of the Earth map. Set that colour as a Colour Overlay style on the water deep layer.
--do the same for the other two layers, selecting a mid-depth colour and a shallow water colour respectively.
--using the magic wand tool, I selected all the water areas in your map (you probably don't have to do that, depending on how your layers are arranged); on Water Deep layer, fill the selected area with white. Due to the colour overlay, it should appear as dark blue.
--on the Water Medium layer, use a soft brush (a grunge brush, if you have one, a 0% hardness one if you don't) on ~10% opacity, and white, to simply paint in the middle depths of the ocean.
------when doing this, the best way is to simply keep on clicking the mouse button (if you are using a mouse) and don't worry about being precise. Each time you click the button, you are adding 10% white to the map (which will appear blue, due to the Colour Overlay layer style). The idea is to build that up gradually. Thus, in areas that are more shallow, click more often, in areas that are less shallow, click less often. Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty quick.
--repeat the previous step for Water Shallow, focussing especially on coastlines (i.e.e clicking more often to build up the colour the most).

That's essentially it. Look at your image, and post online for comments. It may take a while before you have mastered this technique, and you certainly won't be turning out perfect ocean floors right away. There's all kinds of others things you can try after that (adding texture, having more than 3 layers, playing with filters like blur and clouds, adding layer masks and playing with them, etc.), but for now I think this will help.

(By the way, the texture was copied directly from the Earth map you linked to; I included it to serve as a comparison).

Fourth, uploading to CG: when replying to a post, click Go Advanced, scroll down the page, and look for a button called 'Manage Attachments.' That'll take you to a window where you can upload pictures, and include them in your posts (it is also available when you start a new thread).

THW

[Svea]

Hey! Been a while, busy busy!
I decided to re-make the mountains again and I think they look really good now, haven't touched the water though.
Kinda happy with it, but might fiddle with it later using the technique you described above! So thanks for that!

I was wondering how to do labels correctly? I mean, I can write on the picture and all but it looks really weird to just
have the name stamped on there. Does the font need to look a specific way for it to look good? Or does it need to have
a highlight or something? It just looks so darn plain and out-of-place. Check the picture for what I mean below.

Also tried to upload it before but it was over the image size sadly

http://i.imgur.com/UCbOCCq.jpg