Bran Castle, take two: coloring (Suggestions and feedback much appreciated)

[tainotim]

Had some time over to practice coloring on this old map from December last year. However, as always with color, I end up unsure whether it's good or bad. So I turn towards you, dear guild, in hopes for some feedback

Personally, I like how the castle turned out. However, the remaining parts of the map I'm more uncertain about. Especially the grass and ground parts.
When it comes to the grass, I'm struggling with making such a large body of green come out good. In the two examples one is just plain green on texture, and one has some shadow and lights. However, I find that both is lacking something, but I just can't make it right or figure out what.
Concerning the ground part. Right now, the paper texture is doing all the talking, however, when I try to give it a less "sandy" feel It just become ... meh. Not certain if it works like this or not. In the second version I added some shadow coloring to the buildings.

Any suggestion or ideas how I could improve upon the coloring in this map would be greatly appreciated! Especially upon the two mentioned parts

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Tainotim

[Ilanthar]

That's looking great Tainotim! I think you managed well the shadows and prefer the second one.

[J.Edward]

Beautiful work. Definitely the second. The shadows and highlights add a lot.
With this style it is hard to get more ground texture. Normally I would say to add some little pen lines to give it more life but since you've done that to make the shadows for the buildings it probably wouldn't look right.
Was it done in pen? or done in PS?
One thing you could try is to do the little line squiggles to make it look textured but instead of using black you could use the ground color on another layer and set that layer to multiply. It would give you a more subtle dark line that would still match the ground color/hue.
That's probably the best thing I can think of for this style.
Here's an example of what I meant.
Color sampled is just ground color on multiply layer set to 80%.
Basic brush, no special settings except shape dynamics set to pen pressure [if you're using a dig.tablet].

Not sure if that's the sort of thing you're after.

[tainotim]

Thanks a lot friends! And big thanks for the advice J. Edward, I will definitely try it out. Really adds some depth to it. I will take the appreciation for the grass as a confirmation, and focus onward on the ground and other details I intend to add!

Cheers,
Tainotim

[Jaxilon]

When I get stumped on something like that I usually go to Google earth and look for some image from earth that has what I'm looking for and then figure out how I can mimic it or sometimes it gives me a whole new idea. Most grass just isn't one shade of green if you really look at it.

Also, I agree the second one is better so far.

[arsheesh]

I'm with everyone else here: the second one is the one to stick with. This is coming along nicely. To add to J's suggestion, I think for this style (ink with subdued colors) you might get some inspiration from someone like Mike Schley, who uses a combination of ink and color for his texture. For instance check out the texture of the ground in this piece.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[snodsy]

Wow that's a dominant castle, you'd have to bow down to them. I'd add some horizontal lines on the roof lines and maybe on the hillside to give it some tiers, the hillside seems a little flat, stair step like. Love the second one with shadows really really nice, color palette in great

[Eld]

I love the structure and architecture of this castle. The style looks great. There's just one thing that confuses me:
In the background a river flows into some open water, maybe a lake or the sea. Yet there's no horizon to distinguish between sky and water. To me that seems to get in conflict with the perspective. I can see that the blue of the water fades out yet that doesn't seem to replace a horizon line.

Why did you place the legend in the lower right corner covering a part of the city while the sky has much empty space left? Did you try to place it in the sky and if so how did it come out?

[tainotim]

Thanks for all the kind words friends, and the suggestions! Really helpful and I will try to take them all to heart as much as possible. Regrettably there isn't much I can do concerning the line-work/style in this map. It's all hand-drawn on a A4, and the original is long gone. And, I have not yet found a way to "cleanly" mix traditional and digital line-work. However, the suggestions and ideas are greatly appreciated for future maps

Eld, regarding the comment concerning the legends. In my time doing map, there are a few mistakes that will forever haunt me. Like the mountains in my "City of Kashir" map, or another, the legend in this map. A rushed choice, party made due to working to close towards the deadline. Concerning the horizontal line I think it's a great idea, something I should be able to incorporate digitally, or at least try!
I will try to have an update soon as possible. Working with too many maps at the same time right now :p

Cheers,
Tainotim

[Eld]

I looked a bit more at this map and concerning the legend I'd say it's not really a mistake. It's uncommon, I'd say, yes, but not a real mistake. Because if you imagine the other option, placing the legend in the sky at the upper right corner, then the legend would have come into conflict with the castle in means of image composition. The way you have it here the castle is the only thing in the upper half of the image and therefor dominates all the image, just as the castle is meant to dominate the surrounding land. This way the composition of the image adds to the desired effect. A legend in the upper half would deny that effect. So the only thing I'd really enjoy to be realised is the horizontal line. I'd place the line shortly above the number "12" on the map so that the castle rises in the sky.