First Battle-Map Critique Requested

[sgains0]

Hello Guildmates,

This is my first post on the Cartographers Guild as I have just joined. I am recently getting into DMing using virtual tabletops like Roll20. I have also gotten into making my own custom battle maps for these adventures, which naturally led me here. I am posting this as a WIP/looking for advice reach out.

I have created a battle-map to be used as a random encounter on a road or whatever I need to re-purpose it for. I was inspired by the well known artist, often used by official D&D campaigns, Mike Schley's artwork that utilizes pastel colors and a lot of fine brushwork. I believe this makes a very beautiful map. Although I am inspired by it, I'm not necessarily trying to copy it, just emulate some design features. I included an image of his work.

mikeSchley.jpg

Here is MY work, it is my first attempt at using any imaging software to create maps. I used GIMP for most of this, however some of the shapes were created in Inkscape. I am looking for any sort of critique on my work, what are its strengths and weaknesses? I'd like to hear and maybe even get some tips from the veteran guild members. I also believe that I will post a step by step of what I did for two reasons. The first is so that everybody else can emulate what I've done, and second to see if there is anything I'm doing that could be done easier/better. Cheers!

Road_BattleMap_25x25.JPG

[DanielHasenbos]

For a first battlemap I'd say this is great. I like the colors you've chosen and the general vibe of the map is nice. If you're looking for feedback I'd say you could add some texture to the grass. I don't think is would need to be much, just some lines and dots here and there. You could also add some shading around the pond to give it a little more depth. Other than that I'd say this is very nice (:

[madcowchef]

Great looking map, very readable, clear height variation, and I like the lack of monotone colors in it. For improvements I'd go for a more subtle style of brush to blend your grass in with your trail, more water color subtle as the hard edges compete with your line work for defining the features. As you stated its specifically for roll20, I'd suggest taking the grid off so you aren't committed to it at a single size and can adjust scale, grid opacity, and grid color in roll20 to make it fit your current use of the map so it works equally well at night with dynamic lighting as full bright during the day. This will help with your desire to reuse it as needed.

[sgains0]

I didn't even think about how the grid would affect re-usability in Roll20 or potential dynamic lighting effects. I would like to get more texture into the grass, but I don't know if doing a bunch of line-work like I did for the hills would be very good since I only have a mouse to work with so its not precise and very time consuming. What sort of textures would work well for that? Also for the water, how could I make it blend better while still keeping the hard black outline around it? Thanks!

[wargames]

I see that you are trying to have some height in your map but doesn't seem too defined, maybe some shadowing would help that effect?