My First Attempt - Continent Nytoga

[arsheesh]

First the praise. Nice overall landmass shape. The color palette is very nice, and the blending of colors in the land and on the mountains is particularly good. All in all this is an excellent beginning to a first map. Next the critique. The "crumpled paper" sea texture is, as Steel General mentioned, too prominent, it could definitely be toned down a bit. Conversely, the sea shelf surrounding the continent and its islands is not textured, or at least blended, enough. Up close the shelf looks like a lighter blob of color plopped down over the sea texture. I would recommend that you try to give the sea bumps texture surrounding the islands and land a bit more emphasis (e.g. more height). Likewise, I would try gradually blending the lighter hue with the darker to try to give the impression that the land is gradually emerging out of the depths of the ocean floor.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Rythal]

In the southeast you have what appears to be a river going from coast to coast. As a member of the 'River Police' I would be remiss in not pointing out that this doesn't normally happen. Of course if you have a reason for it, then just ignore this.

It seems to me that that is an inland sea (can the OP confirm this?), in which case it is perfectly acceptable to have a river going from it to the ocean.

as for the map, great job

[Mancer]

It seems to me that that is an inland sea (can the OP confirm this?), in which case it is perfectly acceptable to have a river going from it to the ocean.

as for the map, great job

First, thank ya =)

Yeah, the watermass in the middle is an inland sea, with the only connection to the ocean being that little river. I was playing with the idea of shrinking the image until I could show all of the lake and its surrounding desert, but I feel like that would take away from the focus of the image, which is the two "main character" nations.