Okay, I did change the colors of the mountains and trees and I have to say that was good advice. I see now how the contrast in color was choking the map and now it looks more fluid.
I took my tree brush, reduced it size, and spot-filled the holes. Then I added by hand the trunks of the trees. Zoomed out the trunks are not that noticeable, but up close it really added some depth to the forests.
I am really pleased at the way this is coming out and appreciate all the tips.
Avoid "proper black". Ink isn't "black black" it's just really super dark grey, like a 90% black. The "other" 10% is probably best in the purple range. If you're curious why...just get a cheap felt-tip pen, draw a big splotch on a strip of paper at one end and lay the end into water (keeping the other end out of water). Come back in 2h and you should have some nice colour separation of the tints in the "black" ink.
In older maps the seas often turned into "doodle spaces", notations or other things. I remember seeing a map from Columbus' voyage to the Americas that had drawings of the three ships named in the "spare sea".
That forest is looking much more convincing, nice move
Definitely thicken the rivers a tad towards the coast. Just increase your brush size incrementally as you go closer to the shore (or decrease if drawing from shore to the end) if you don't have a tablet, or play with the fade option (noticing you use photoshop) Perhaps use the same colour as the edge of the coast for the river colour? That will help blend them in at the coastline too.
And dotsor dashes for the roads seems to work well on quite a few maps out there, might be worth a try here too.
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
You could add character to your rivers by making them more squiggly and adding thick and thin spots along the way...like in the bends.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Here I finished the forests and started the laborious task of cleaning up the clipping with the mountains. I've also began to address the river issue. I have been playing with different things in that respect.
You will also notice I have also began labeling the cities and land features. The font is not set in stone but I was thinking about just keeping it simple to avoid hard to decipher fonts.
*EDIT*
Ok, I am uploading the next stage in the map. I have finished the mountain clean up and added most of the terrain tags. I am undecided on whether to label the mountain ranges and still haven't come to a decision on the font style.
I am also considering making some hills and brushing them in to give the map some more depth. If I like the outcome that will be the next post.
Last edited by voidgere; 10-04-2009 at 07:44 PM. Reason: avoiding double post
Ok, changed the font. There is something hookey going on with that. Some words looked bold while others are normal. Not sure where the hiccup is there. I put in the hills and I am happy with them. As for the rivers, I have tried several things but nothing seems to strike home for me. So I am leaving them as they are and considering other avenues (no pun intended) for the roads.
So let me know if the font is too hard to read or if the coloring is not enough of a contrast from the terrain.
The new font looks ok to me apart from where it changes like you pointed out.
Did you change the image you posted two posts up when you edited it? I ask because, I liked your trees when you had done them all but now they seem too thick. I'm sure you changed them. If so, I preferred the first ones.
A few changes I'd make would be: The new hills. There is little to no variation in them but I just can hardly see them. They are so light in relation to everything else. Also, there would maybe be some hilly areas that aren't just mountain foothills.
I think you need to change either the colour of the sea or the land as for now, all that is to differentiate between them is a stroke or two.
Also, and this is just personal taste, I'd re-darken your mountains somewhat. They don't want to be black but they just seem kinda washed out as they are now.
Still, coming along nicely.
Royal: I'm very sorry for your loss, your mother was a terribly attractive woman.
My Cartographer's Guild maps: Finished Maps
More maps viewable at my DeviantArt page: Ramah-Palmer DeviantArt
Thing about that much C&C.. if you didn't like the map you wouldn't care enough to make all the suggestions
I take it as a compliment if people give me that level of detail.
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
I am with Coyote on this one. If you are willing to take the time out to give such suggestions I would be a fool to ignore them. I do have some points to bring up.
Sea color variation: I have tinkered with it a little bit and the new contrast is nice although subtle.
Drop Shadow: The drop shadow on the mountains was put there because for some reason there is opacity that allows bits and pieces of the underlying mountains to bleed through. I couldn't find any other way to eliminate that. So I guess I will have to nix the drop shadow and go back in erase the bits that poke out. Ugh.
Rivers: I almost laughed at the simplicity of your suggestion. I yelled, swore and threw my arms up in disgust trying to achieve that effect, and here you go offering such a simple way of doing that I completely did not even consider. You are the MAN!
Compass: The compass gets disfigured during the reduction process when I am trying to decrease the file size in order to upload to CG website. The original hi-res version does not look like this.
Reticulation: I am not quite sure what this means. If you could clarify for me maybe I can address it.
Banner: In the hi-res version the raised ring is not so pronounced and it gives it a nice effect, but when considering the reasons you cite (the style of map) I can see why it might be too much. On a positive note, a side effect of getting rid of it allows me to increase the size a tad and move it further away from the shore!!
All in all, I would not have placed my map up here if I wasn't ready for criticism. I love this input and you guys have taken what at first seemed a real pain in the arse and turned it into a possible new hobby for me. This has been really fun.
It may not have been called reticulation that you used. Film grain maybe or just noise, the gazillion little dots used to grunge it up a little. I'd lower the opacity on that effect by quite a bit personally.
Royal: I'm very sorry for your loss, your mother was a terribly attractive woman.
My Cartographer's Guild maps: Finished Maps
More maps viewable at my DeviantArt page: Ramah-Palmer DeviantArt
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