Terralia

[Len Wolff]

Hello guild,

It has been a while since I posted on these forums. Now I am back with a new map. It is a continent map consisting of four major islands. The size of the continent is a bit bigger than Europe. The basic shape of the continent is mostly done, it only needs a few minor tweaks. I started working on the hills and mountains, but I am not quite satisfied and I will work some more on them.

I am working in Photoshop with pattern layers and layer masks, so everything is non-destructible and I can easily edit anything in a later stage. This is also my first attempt at cartography with my Wacom Intuos tablet.

cgwip01.jpg

[Domino44]

This looks really nice! I think it would look better if the sea had a nice texture to it as well, I really like the way you have the mountains on the land.

[ChickPea]

Good start. Agree with Domino's comments about the sea. The land looks great though.

[Len Wolff]

Yeah, the sea is really bad...

...Luckily it is just a place-holder ;-) The sea still needs to be done, but I like to put in a solid blue layer untill I start working on the water texture. That works better for me than a blank background.

[Pixie]

Mountains seem too large for the scale. Those northern volcanoes are roughly half of Ireland in size, each. I don't want to put all your work down, but may I suggest that you save a simplified version of your map (say 800 xp wide, low-quality jpeg) and use it as an overlay in Google Earth. If you haven't done this yet, I think your view on the geographical features of your map, such as mountains, islands and lakes, would be really improved.

Personally, I don't buy the landshape, but I don't need convincing as long as you are happy with it.

[Carnifex]

I like the mountains! They remind me of the way I did mountains on this map: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=21476
I think you managed to get a sharper look on your mountains - I wish I had time to work on that style more.

[Len Wolff]

Thank you for the tip pixie. It is very useful. I already knew that the mountains don't match with the scale of the map. I thought about making them smaller, but if I scaled them down to the right size you wouldn't even be able to see them on the map and I want them on the map as eyecatchers. I really like the way that -Max- emphesised the points of interest in his map of Silvarin and I want to try something similar.

Carnifex, I really like your Riverlands map.

[Len Wolff]

Progress is slow, but steady. here an update to my map. Any thoughts on the color overlay?

cgwip02.jpg

[Joker87]

Good map, I like the landmass. One question, is there a tutorial for this kind of mountains?

[ChickPea]

I like your new colour palette, but I'm very fond of darker, desaturated colours. I did like the brighter green you had in your first map, but I think this works too. The sea area is much improved.