Kirach Valley

[Malygon]

Hello there.

I'm currently working on a map named "Kirach Valley" for a DnD campaign I'm working on. It is based in a world of my own creation and is the entrance for the player characters. The layout will be a crater/valley filled with vegetation with a lake in the middle.

It's also the first map I'm making so it's only natural I'm running into many problems. I'm working with the tutorial "Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional RPG Map" bei RobA which is definetly great but some things are just not working for my map.

1. This is a test map of the techniques used in the tutorial:



I'm not quite sure how to do the forests they just don't blend in with the grass especially there where the grass is bright and the forest is.. still dark.
What can I do to change that? Also the texture of the forests still strikes me a little odd.


My actual Map is not going to be a Island but a crater/vally with steep mountains on the edge with one or more paths leading out. The problem is while I think the mountains in RobA's tutorial look quite good I don't think they are suited for this kind of map dominated by mountains. Is there a way to create these mountains using GIMP? And how can I give the whole map a hint of descending terrain?

Also the area behind the mountains is not yet explored or the maps of these areas have been lost by the grinding stone of time. How can I show this in map?

Any tips and help is welcomed even if it is just linking me to a tutorial where things are explained. And please presume I don't know much about GIMP because that is it.

Thanks
Maly

PS: And sorry if my english is bad I'm checking everything twice but still it isn't my first language.