It's a very unique style, I like it. There are a few typos though: iles should be isles, vengence should be vengeance, kilomiters should be kilometers, and terretory should be territory.
Hey guys,
I have been coming here for a long time to gather information here and there and to check out some of the maps that were made and I have to say there is some mighty fine work. I decided to put my self to the test and create something and see what people thought so I made this map inspired by my countrey of Serbia. The insperation is less in the land scape rather in the story as I will be using this map for a "Balkanized" role play. This map took about two days to make so it was a little rushed but I felt it was finished and I wanted some professional opinions on how it looks or how to improove it.
Anyways I will be hopefully posting future projects for you all to see so enjoy and tell me what you think!
It's a very unique style, I like it. There are a few typos though: iles should be isles, vengence should be vengeance, kilomiters should be kilometers, and terretory should be territory.
Interesting style! the one thing that I would change is the forest of anuka; using blue for land colours is generally a bad idea, as it gives the illusion that the land is submerged. You could also change the water colour to a very light beige, like old maps.
The colors on land are the influence or rather terretory boundarys and I can see what you mean I shall have to change the coloring. And as for the typos, that is what you get with no coffee at 4:00 in the morning!
Thanks for the comments.
Looks like one of the PS filters was used for the mountains, can't remember which one but I know I experimented with it, but I must say this looks better than I ever came up with using that filter. Nice job.
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Brush stroke with high embois will do the trick.
I like the overall effect. Ditto what Rythal says - blue's an awkward land color, when you have ocean=blue. There's other unsaturated colors that would go well with the dull red and dull green of the two other territorial shadings. Are some of your rivers maybe on a layer under the territory shading? Because you have both ocean-light-blue rivers, and a few that are way darker.
I'm confused about the exact focus of the map. There's multiple peninsulas - I could assume the largest, the blue area is Kelridian. But it occupies what, less than 20% of the map? I realize that for a game your players have all sorts of ancillary info at hand, but as a standalone map, the title leaves me uncertain. You could decouple the title from the place, setting it aside in a border or cartouche, then you could put a "Kelridian" label on the actual peninsula. Or you could make the shading for your focal peninsula a distinct color, and give a clue by having the title the only other bit on the map that's that exact color. You sort of did that with blue tint / blue label, but blue is sort of a reserved color for water labels... If the two smaller territories are emphatically not your focus, ?being not on the Kelridian Peninsula?, you could fade their color out some. If you're figuring this to be just a chunk of the world, all territories of equal interest, you could title it 'Kelridian Peninsula and Environs' or the like.
Laying text arcoss fairly high-contrast background like your (very effective) mountain pattern is always problematic. The Karr Mountains label is trying to disappear. Forest Shibaja isn't quite as bad, but still is indistinct. A dark glow or border on their text would improve legibility, but would probably overwhelm the mountain pattern. Flipping them to dark text, surrounded by a light glow, might work, leaving the impression that the mountains 'just weren't drawn' right there. If the currently-blue tint is a political unit, do they not own some strips of coast? That's the impression, along two stretches of coast.
The style is pretty consistent, and the sketchiness of the coastlines looks right, but I'm left wondering if the broken lines symbolize something. Maybe it's that you have both the hmmmm cartoon-y? rough-woodcut thing going with most coasts, but then there's those patches of more-detailed little islands. The dots and lines along much of your coast are as big and distinct as a lot of the archipelago dots.
What is fifty kilometers, the line under the title? Hard to tell. You could transform it into more of a scale bar with cross-tics at each end. Visually, it's so closely associated with the title, being the same exact length, that it looks like just an underline at first impression.
The fact the Forest Anuka label is the single largest label on the blue peninsula makes it seem as though that's the name of the whole territory. Maybe it would work to have the greenish forest tint above the territory tint?
Is Kalifar not in a nation-state like Gromm, Narphilious, and Oralian seem to be? If it is, that south coast would seem to deserve a nation-tint too. If not, you could indicate the differing status by some kind of political labeling there. For that matter, are the three colored territories just named by their major cities?
That's a lot of commentary, for what is a map that already looks quite good. I like it better already than some that don't have many problems - you're headed in a good direction! Oh, and welcome to the Guild - even if you have lurked for months, this is a rep-worthy first post, what with a nice map and all!
Wow that was a lot of information! It all helps and I am thinking now after showing the map to begin recreating it with all the information you all have pitched in. Hopefully Kelridian will get a make over soon!
Thanks again and might obliged!
Sergej.
I have to agree with all the above posts. However, I really like the style. Niiccee. My biggest beef is the colors used on the land. Otherwise, really nice work.
rmfr
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I don't have any problem with the blue land. It's distinct enough from the water color that it doesn't confuse me, and I think the colors are one of the attractive features of this map. It is certainly conventional to not use blue for land where there is blue for water, even when the shades are this distinct. In addition to errors of spelling and inconsistent capitalization, the labeling suffers from a general awkwardness. The key, for example, has "Village" and "Town" to the right of the symbols, whereas "Major City" is to the left. This could be fixed with the use of a cartouche, so that you are not trying to work around the features of the underlying map. (Also, without a separate "City" symbol, you can probably just drop the "Major" from the one you do have.) Also, if the land colors are nations, I would think that "Neutral Territory" would be the base gray, not green. That's pretty much it for criticisms: I think this is a very nice map, except that the labeling, not just the names of places, but the key and scale, need to improved.