Map help

[mako1975]

anyone willing to help me out, as you can see my mapping is still aweful after months of playing with cc3 and cc3+

[Sarithus]

I wouldn't say that was awful, your forests are nice and your mountains look pretty good (if somewhat oddly shaped in the top right). The main problem I have with that map is that it looks a bit unnatural, everything is a bit too evenly spaced which creates this tiled look. I suggest trying to blend aspects of the map together. Keeping a similar style throughout the map is important, so play around with the green of the land. Give it a little bit of a black outline, give it a bit of shadow and some more texture so it doesn't look so flat and I think that will help it better match your mountains. I think the yellow sand area and the hills could do with some blending as well. You could also try differentiating the ice in the north so it doesn't look tiled. Hope that helps!

Edit: Just realised you made it using map making software. I read cc3 as cs3 and thought you were using photoshop. Oh well, maybe what I wrote could still come in handy.

[Ninkasi]

I agree with Sarithus' comment about it looking patchy. In real life there isn't blank space between different types of geographies.

I'd also encourage you to look a little more closely at your rivers. The fact that they run from mountain to ocean is accurate, but they're going to enter the water at a bay, not at a point of the coast that runs perpendicular to the river. You have a couple rivers that bypass a bay to enter the water at a farther point, which is unrealistic. If a river can take a shortcut to get to the sea, it will.

[johnvanvliet]

maybe stop using "cc3"

other tools will expand your area

try non computer
lap size chalk board - they make 3 x 2.5 foot green boards

some colored chalk and a damp rag

also look through OTHER art books - non map
paintings and charcoals

one of the first things that hits me is the lack of composition

the "rule of thirds " or this "1.618????????"

now maps do not always fall into this BUT the part of the area YOU display IN a map can be set to thirds or 1 in about ( just under)1 and 2 thirds 1:1-2/3

PS.
my fine art background is showing through .