Umbraland Map

[Will Phillips]

Update time!

Changes:

• Border: I spent a few hours last night working on the spider web border, and I've got to say, I think it looks flippin' sweet. The boxes and logo area need some work, though.
• Iconography: I'm starting to play around with finding icons and an overall design style that I like. Part of that includes the terrain lines in the upper right corner and the croplands towards the left middle. The cropland will probably look good scaled down and the town icon scaled up. The desert lines just need a lot of work. It may be a long road...

Lookin good. Just a point that I am sure you will cover anyway... if you have two rivers that go to different edges or sea areas and the sources almost meet then there would have to be a pretty steep bit of ground separating the two. I only say this because sometimes I see great maps where they have these mountain ranges on there and in another part of the map you see this with no mountains and it looks odd.

You're right on the money. The rivers you see got put down roughly tracing over the layout of rivers I had placed on a larger continent map. I'll be adjusting accordingly once I make the "real" rivers and mountains.

Looks good so far. I love the paper background. Where did you get it from - or did you make it yourself?

The one thing that sticks a little is the mountain shadows on that northern range. Every other shadow in the map is done with horizontal lines - specifically in the title text. It seems a little odd to do shadows this way in one part and a different way in another.

To be succinct, the paper background is one I've made from way too many layers and parts of stock photography and other tricks.

I'm not happy with the mountains at all, and am trying to find a style I like. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I am in unrepentent experimentation mode right now across the board, looking for a unifying design style.

[torstan]

Go on, be less succinct - it looks sweet.

The phases of the moon on the borders are great. Glad to see this coming along.

[Will Phillips]

Go on, be less succinct - it looks sweet.

The phases of the moon on the borders are great. Glad to see this coming along.

Thanks - they are actually a big part of the fantasy setting of Umbraland, I'm working on - the moon and the spider webbing motif are all together as a "Lunar Web," and I wanted to incorporate them into the map.

[Sigurd]

Very, very sweet border.

Like the map, I'd love to see the rest of it.

Constructive crits...

Generally a bit bright.
The band of horizontal bars in your water looks a little hard edged and arbitrary. Try determining the landward side of the edge by some sort of reference affect (Outer Glow?) to your continents.

Love the paper and highlights on the paper. But be aware that if you're going to have multiple maps use the same paper the highlights might be too repetitive.


Sigurd

[jfrazierjr]

I'm not happy with the mountains at all, and am trying to find a style I like. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I am in unrepentent experimentation mode right now across the board, looking for a unifying design style.

I have to say, I LOVE the mountains at the top of the map. The snow, cleft lines, and slight shadow work very well together IMO. It looks hand drawn instead of appearing "stamped" down.