WIP - VA'DUM The Eldest & Most Primal Dominion

[Sarithus]

I'm on a rollercoaster of liking and dislking the map Feeling a bit better now that I've started to render the sides of the land.

Thanks Ilanthar!

[TaylorH]

Really stunning, Sarithus. Beastly amount of detail and great lighting and atmosphere. Keep going with it!

[J.Edward]

That sound like me in a way. The longer a piece takes the more I get to points of disliking it.
That's why I often work on a couple pieces at the same time.
If I get a bit out of sorts with one I can switch up and work on another for a bit.

Just keep plugging away at it.

[Sarithus]

Update:

Edit: Now, what colours should I do my rivers? Blue would be out of place and I'm not sure water fits here anyway. Green is already in use for the lava.

[J.Edward]

Well, with the color scheme you've got going, bluish to purple could be interesting. Not really sure if there would be water there though.
Lots of steam maybe.

[Sarithus]

Okay, last post for tonight! 3 days straight I've been working on this, I think. Done a lot to day (rivers/lava is temporary):

Night!



Check out the difference a day can make.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/at...8&d=1426758235

[Sarithus]

Good morning! In honour of the solar eclipse I give you Ea'xaxirion The Void Throne!

[CloudFang]

Looking great. I know it's not finished and I'm not sure if your taking suggestions but I had a few compositional things I thought I would throw out at you. In the friendliest way possible, I'm not trying to be "that guy".

The whole image with the way the spiral opens up and pulls you down and the way the small floating mass at the very bottom is placed leads you down quickly and off the bottom right edge of the page. You only break the picture plane at the bottom and the very bottom right. If your breaking edges you should be at least 3 edges strong or things get weird quickly.

Also the top left strangely pulls you away too. And is separate from the rest of the top. Also at the top on the right side is a "straight line" broken only by the lone mountain. The problem is the line is mostly straight but not perfectly. It's only off enough to look wrong, not like a sloping line.

Finally the very flat solid color of the background works well in separating the map and bringing it forward, but the lack of depth creates a very strange perspective issue with the map itself and messes with depth. A slight texture or gradient could possibly solve that problem.

Now I only say this stuff as my opinion. Not fact. And I'm only saying it because this map is awesome! Sorry in all ways if I'm offending you or anyone else. Just some suggestions...

-earl-

[Sarithus]

Looking great. I know it's not finished and I'm not sure if your taking suggestions but I had a few compositional things I thought I would throw out at you. In the friendliest way possible, I'm not trying to be "that guy".

The whole image with the way the spiral opens up and pulls you down and the way the small floating mass at the very bottom is placed leads you down quickly and off the bottom right edge of the page. You only break the picture plane at the bottom and the very bottom right. If your breaking edges you should be at least 3 edges strong or things get weird quickly.

Also the top left strangely pulls you away too. And is separate from the rest of the top. Also at the top on the right side is a "straight line" broken only by the lone mountain. The problem is the line is mostly straight but not perfectly. It's only off enough to look wrong, not like a sloping line.

Finally the very flat solid color of the background works well in separating the map and bringing it forward, but the lack of depth creates a very strange perspective issue with the map itself and messes with depth. A slight texture or gradient could possibly solve that problem.

Now I only say this stuff as my opinion. Not fact. And I'm only saying it because this map is awesome! Sorry in all ways if I'm offending you or anyone else. Just some suggestions...

-earl-

I appreciate the feedback, however hard it is to read (reading the post after having spent time rendering the sides of the land)

I'd really like if you could maybe do a paint over on what you would do to fix the composition as I'm not entirely sure I follow what you've wrote. I'm not opposed to getting rid of the small island if you think it is harming the picture. I am however aware that it's a bit of an odd shape. I would say that the theme is chaos...so a weird shape might not be out of place.

As for the flat grey, that's just temporary. A lot of presentational stuff to be done before it's all finished.

Edit: I thank you for making the post as it made me look closer at the shape, and I realised I wasn't happy with it anyway. I've cut off what I had and quickly drew in another shape which I think makes slightly better balanced. Thoughts?

[Sarithus]

Update: