First Map, need opinions.

[Nicolax126]

Hey guys, this is my first map and my first post in the forum, so im pretty nervous. Its a work in progress regional map. Please, feel free to leave your opinions and suggestions, they are greatly appreciated. Nicolax126

[Frenchie the DM]

Nice work so far! Some ticky things: your southern lake in the Northern continent has two outlets, real lakes usually only have one (of course, fantasy world physics can do anything.) Your rivers seem a bit too wide and straight, but that's just me. Keep it up!

[xpian]

I agree with Frenchie, that little lake would be quite unusual to have two very divergent outlets to the sea. It would only really work if one was a canal that was being maintained by intelligent creatures, as any natural situation like this will quickly evolve to favor one outlet over the other, and the less-used one will get clogged up with silt. The other, remote possibility is that seasonal floods cause an occasional overflow in the less-used direction, when the main outlet channel can't handle the extra water volume.

The rivers are a good first attempt. If I were critiquing them, I would say that they need to be much more squiggly in appearance. For instance, your coastlines are quite realistically rough and squiggly. The rivers should be just as rough and meandering, in general. If you've ever experimented at school or at a science museum with running water down a trough of sand, you'll see how rivers naturally created their own meandering path. Silt builds up on one side, then the other, and it's a feedback-loop process that gets more and more extreme over time, leading to oxbow lakes and features like that.

I have a minor issue with the actual paths of your rivers, or their extent. The rivers seem to cut just a bit too far across the landmasses, in some cases pulling water from land which is quite close to the sea but in the other direction. While this is not impossible, it's unusual, and when it's done over and over again it seems strange and a bit unrealistic. When drawing rivers, try to let the mountains themselves dictate where the rivers will start and which direction they'll flow. There are several places, especially in the southern continent, where it looks like the rivers are avoiding some very easy paths to the sea in order to flow clear across a bunch more land.

I do like the texture and colors you're using for the ground, and the oceans look pleasing as well. I like the flowing look of the water and the hints of a continental shelf.

Some of the little islands and nodules sticking out of the mainland *appear* to my trained eye as pixel-artifacts from Photoshop with a layer-style stroke applied to them. You could convince yourself that they're really meant to be tiny little islands, but they do look a little like some stray pixels that weren't entirely erased before the layer style was applied. Just a note.

[Robert Boucher]

I agree with xpian. Rivers are far too rounded, get some jitter in there and remember water runs off the high points too.

Also, all around this map is very nice. The coloring is very on point for the all around style.

Why is everyone better at coloring then me?

[Deadshade]

The map is full of squares and very visible straight line boundaries probably coming from layers that have been done in a slightly different color. This is a technical default that must go away.
I couldn't make up my mind if the brownish fuzzy shapes were supposed to be mountains, hills or deserts. I suppose that it will be later resolved in some shapes and won't stay in this cloudish, foggy style.
I agree with the other posters regarding the 2 lake outlets and too straight rivers with unrealistic path.

On the positive side is the shore line and the ocean color (the square boundaries must go away) which are really nice.

[Nicolax126]

I changed the rivers and the mountains to give them a more natural look. What do you think about it now?

[xpian]

Wow, yes, those rivers are much more believable.

At this point, you might now need several more rivers coming down from those mountains in believable ways...or you might just assume that the rivers depicted are the largest and most important ones, and that, naturally, there are other little rivers flowing all over the place which are too small to be depicted. Up to you, really. But the ones you have now are behaving in a natural way.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

After I saw your first map I was going to suggest seriously taming your north arrow. They can be that big, but the bold black and white looked really odd with the rest of your color scheme. Obtrusive north arrows are the worst. Your map looks good and my eyes shouldn't be drawn away from the subject matter. Nice start!

[Nicolax126]

Hey, i finally had some time to work on the map. I´m thinking how to make the political borders. What advice do you have? Because i dont feel very confident on what i have so far.
Thank you

[Alturax]

Hey man. First of all, good job so far.
If I'm not mistaken, you are following the Saderan tutorial, one of my personal favorites. I have one tip for you, which is to experiment with different brushes for the mountains. The ones you have now are pretty rough in my opinion, and perhaps a different brush would suit you better.

Good job on the new rivers, they feel alot more natural!
As far as the political borders, they are pretty good. I myself am not very fond of them and have a hard time coming up with ways to make them work.. So perhaps I'm not the guy to tell you anything regarding them. Still, if it counts for anything, they look pretty good.

Keep up the good work