First Finished Map: The Alait Achipelago

[Becka S]

This is the first map I ever finished and I'm still very much on a learning curve so any constructive criticism would be appreciated.

I made it using Wisemoon's PDFs of RobA's gimp tutorial http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=19007

Things I've noticed. The coastline probably needs more randomness it's a bit smooth, and I need more practice on mountains and labels.

Background: This map is of the setting for a story I'm writing. I've had the basic shape for ages but I'd put it to one side. When I decided to work through the tutorial I picked it as a good choice for practice.

[tilt]

thats a pretty good start Becka ... As you mention yourself the coastlines are a bit smooth. There is a tutorial for creating realistic coastlines in the forum you could check that out. The mountains and forests have a nice texture, the rest of the land is pretty smooth and flat - I know that if you look from up above much of earth pretty much looks very smooth - but a little texture might look good on that (personal taste). You can add a compass (feel free to take one of mine - link in signature), a scale and a frame to give it a nice finish. And when you're ready for your next map - make a WIP thread so we can help while you work

[Becka S]

Thanks :-)

Yeah, I would like more texture on the non-mountain/non-forest land. There is some but it needs more.

I do actually have a WIP thread for another map I'm working on which was going to be black and white but which I've decided to do in colour using this method. (Alait was my run through to see how it worked). That thread is here http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=33353

I just posted the WIP after the initial step in that thread.

Thanks again,
Becka

[ChickPea]

Hi Becka, I'd second Tilt's comments about the smooth coastlines. It's the first thing that jumps out at me. I think your basic land shapes are good, but you definitely need some randomness in there. A scale would be nice too, so that we can get an idea of the overall size. I also noticed a couple of places where your forests extend beyond the land into the sea.

You've made a really good first map though, and a few small tweaks will make it great. Looking forward to seeing where you go from here.

[jbgibson]

Nice job! The rivers at Nariga and Gateway need to have the direction of their lighting flipped - the rest of the map is lit from NW so those two look humped up instead of sunken in.

Depending on the scale of this I would be willing to buy some of those forests-at-sea as mangrove swamps... it would take texture or labeling to sell that though :-). What *is* your intended scale?

[arsheesh]

Congrats on finishing your first map Becka! As for constructive criticism, aside from what's already been mentioned here are a few things that caught my eye:

• The yellow glow beneath the font is a bit claring. Next time consider using a color that is less brigh, or at least toning down the opacity of that layer;
• The bevel on the rivers is a bit extreme. Next time consider reducing the bevel/emboss effect a bit more;
• Speaking of rivers, they seem a bit thick and they don't really taper much at the end. Next time consider using a smaller brush to draw in the rivers and try using your eraser to help taper them.

All in all though, a good first stab at mapping. Look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Becka S]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Scale is roughly 1000 miles wide so it's quite a big area.

Some of these are quite easy to fix as I only need deal with one or two layers and I'll look at them this evening (the forests in the sea), others would take longer so will be for next weekend (narrowing the rivers), and some would require redoing everything from that point on so will probably stay wrong on this map.

I'm not sure how to fix the rivers at Gateway and Nariga they were beveled at the same time and settings as the others so they shouldn't look differently lit but they do.

And yeah the forests falling off the edges of the islands - definitely me being careless not mangroves. Alait has a temperate oceanic climate.

Thanks again,
Becka