Kingdom of Umthaeul

[Juggernaut1981]

Other than your "apparent free-standing lakes" the River Police will probably not arrest you...

[elemental_elf]

I love your mountains! How'd you make them?

[Coyotemax]

I think what it is for me is that the forests look too digital compared to the rest of the map. You're definitely on the right track with the mountains (I may have to borrow that, slightly blurred tip? I've been working so hard on perfecting the finley engraved line style, i forget how nice this kind can look!). If you can find some way to draw out the forests quickly with the same tools you're using for the mountains, not only will it look consistent, I'll just have to steal it for inspiration

[Isadore]

I wish I could claim credit, but the technique Ive used for the mountains was based off a small tutorial from jfrazierjr on making isometric mountains in this type of style. And yes, Ive erased the forests layer entirely and still have a bit of tweaking on my lakes and rivers to do. Heres a post of the mountains again, they are almost done, but you can see the stages of the technique somewhat if you look far in the top center of the map.

[Karro]

I wish I could claim credit, but the technique Ive used for the mountains was based off a small tutorial from jfrazierjr on making isometric mountains in this type of style. And yes, Ive erased the forests layer entirely and still have a bit of tweaking on my lakes and rivers to do. Heres a post of the mountains again, they are almost done, but you can see the stages of the technique somewhat if you look far in the top center of the map.

Yeah, jfrazierjr's iso mountain technique is pretty great, but you're doing a great job of making it your own!

[Isadore]

Thanks all for the compliments and advice! I didnt mention that in my previous post so I just wanted to say I appreciate it. Ive completed the mountains and now...the forests! Argh! I think Im going to scan a few of my hand drawn trees and make them into brushes..Ill try drawing them with gimp first, so I should have something for preview here shortly. I also changed some of the river/lakes and hopefully now I have them accurately portrayed. Thanks again!

[Isadore]

OK! Here is another post on the map progression so far. Ive moved the rivers/lakes a bit and hopefully made them more true to nature. This is an example of one of the various attempts at the forests. I am still undecided about putting tree bases in, but in any event, I am not pleased with the results and will be scrapping the forest layers to begin anew! I made only one brush from scratch and varied the sizes of it while painting in the forests. Im going to make several more that are different and try again. I like the softness of some of the forest, it matches with the map/mountains, but I am still unsatisfied.

[Gidde]

Those forests don't look bad at all, especially if you added slight trunks along the edges and a bit of shadowing.

Also (and I have to keep reminding myself of this as well) don't forget that the perfect is often the archenemy of the good.

[Juggernaut1981]

OK! Here is another post on the map progression so far. Ive moved the rivers/lakes a bit and hopefully made them more true to nature. This is an example of one of the various attempts at the forests. I am still undecided about putting tree bases in, but in any event, I am not pleased with the results and will be scrapping the forest layers to begin anew! I made only one brush from scratch and varied the sizes of it while painting in the forests. Im going to make several more that are different and try again. I like the softness of some of the forest, it matches with the map/mountains, but I am still unsatisfied.

In an effort to save you from future interrogation by the River Police...

Your North-Central lake should drain into your "central big river" but otherwise... BIG YAY on having a good lake/river system!

[Juggernaut1981]

Those forests don't look bad at all, especially if you added slight trunks along the edges and a bit of shadowing.

Also (and I have to keep reminding myself of this as well) don't forget that the perfect is often the archenemy of the good.

My advice would be to have the "lightest" part of the forest brush be nearly transparent like the mountains and also "grainey". Your mountains look great because they are very "brushey" and "internally textured" but the forests look a bit like you got a little circle, gradiented it and then copy-pasted it everywhere. I think it just needs some of that "mountain lovin" and "brushey-ness".