My first map.

[ravells]

Hey Ravells, thanks for the tip. You mean the black that I just added for shadows right? Change that black to dark grey?

I was thinking of all of the black, the coast outline and the the lines on the dock. Your map has a natural feel to it, and because pure black rarely occurs in nature, it jars a bit (for me) in the picture. If you really wanted to go to town, rather than a dark grey, you could use a dark version of the colour mixed with a dark version of the adjacent colour - so for example a dark greeny / blue for the coastline. The best thing to do is to have a play to see what works for you.

Ravs

[crazybear]

I was thinking of all of the black, the coast outline and the the lines on the dock. Your map has a natural feel to it, and because pure black rarely occurs in nature, it jars a bit (for me) in the picture. If you really wanted to go to town, rather than a dark grey, you could use a dark version of the colour mixed with a dark version of the adjacent colour - so for example a dark greeny / blue for the coastline. The best thing to do is to have a play to see what works for you.

Ravs

Okay, I took your advice and here is the result. What do you think?

[ravells]

It's much better, but I was thinking of all the black - even the grouting on the dock itself. You can afford to go quite dark (much darker than you have) but not quite black.

Quick example below (not as good as yours, but to illustrate). In the picture above I have used black for all outlines. In the picture below I have used a very dark blue green for the coastline, a very dark yellow for the edge of the dock and a very dark red for the dock grouting. You can see how the effect is much softer, whereas the black stands out a mile in the picture above and tends to dominate (which is great if that is what you're after).

Ravs