Playing with mountains

[Karro]

What has been working fairly well for me (at least, I like the result) is to use Ascension's technique for trees and kind of brush them on a layer over my base or mid range mountain layer.

However, I kind of reverse the order he shows in his tutorial. first I apply the layer styles to the trees and reduce the fill to zero, then I use the splatter brush to very carefully stroke them on. This gives kind of 'instant feedback' when applying them, rather than painting a bunch on, applying the styles and finding out you went way over board

thats what I did in these (crops from my larger map in my Intro thread)

Is that in Photoshop or GIMP? Either way, I need to go back and look up Ascension's technique!

Karro, you need to have the trees stop half way up the mountain side. There's a tree-line on mountains, above which they don't grow. So it's going to look strange if there's a forest right over the top of your mountain.

Yeah, I thought about that, but I also thought about the mountains in the Appalachians, and how they're mostly covered in trees... There, I've been to above 4,000 feet and had trees around me. So... how high to trees normally reach?

Anyway, I was going to try to go back and blank out the trees primarily around the ridgeline.