Duwain, question about border...

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What is the intended purpose of the map?
It looks like you're doing a "picture of a map" in the sense that there is an illustration in the context of a parchment surface with a wax seal affixed. I find that red seal a bit jarring, but I have ranted far too often in the past about pictures of maps vs. maps so I won't do it again.

I'm partial to the vertical versions of the map (the second and last), but the parchment border on the last one overwhelms the piece entirely. I don't like what the horizontal frames do to the proportions in the first and fourth. The fourth one feels more coherent the others, but I'm not real fond of the ears on the sides of the frame.

The second one feels the best to me, but it has a weird sloping top caused by the flag not having sky behind it and the size of the light-colored map key at the bottom is wildly unbalanced with the top. The ragged edges contribute to the feeling of imbalance. Possibly extending the sky up to even out the top and putting a mask across the ragged left and right of the illustration might balance that one out enough to make it a winner.

Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments, Waldronate.

First of all, as far as the purpose of the map is concerned, it's quite simple: it's a map that I needed to write and describe a story that takes place in this town. I needed to situate myself and the important elements of the city. The lack of a 'story' around this map is undoubtedly the reason for my frame problem.

I know exactly what you mean about the difference between a map and an illustration of a map. It's absolutely relevant, and I'll be paying a lot more attention to this point in my next attempts. In this respect, it seemed to me that the 4th essay looks more like a map than an illustration of a map, and perhaps that's why you find it the most coherent? That said, I'd be interested to see what solutions you could suggest to avoid "ears" on the sides. I'd tried putting the legend below the map, but if I want to keep to a "coherent" format (A4), that would reduce the size of the map considerably.

Looking more closely at the 2nd essay, I completely understand your comment about the sky. I'll take your advice and extend the blue beyond the pennant. As for the jagged edges, forgive my beginner's question, but are you suggesting darkening them or working on their opacity to make them less prominent? Finally, one last question: I didn't quite understand what you meant by : " the size of the light-colored map key at the bottom is wildly unbalanced with the top." What I've understood is that the surface of the canvas behind the map legend is too bright, clear and present, and that it throws the whole thing off balance?

In any case, thank you for taking the time to give me your opinion, which I really appreciate!