Map of my gameworld

[Jaxilon]

This will probably be the toughest thing for me to post because it is a map of my game world I created about 15 years ago to roleplay with friends. I think Ascension said it best in another thread and I paraphrase him loosely, "I will probably never post a map of my world because I could never do it justice when compared with what's in my mind." Also, If I ever get around to writing a book (something I plan to do one day) this would be the place it would start. So while I would love to share just about any other map I could make, for some reason I'm a tad hesitant on this one.

Then I reminded myself that if I want to get into doing digital art, maps and so on I have to get as much experience as possible and I need all the critiques and help I can get. I barely know how to use Gimp well, I learn something new every time I make a new image and I'm sure I do half the stuff the long way so eventually I am sure I will be doing better work than this. So, saying screw the comfort zone, I'm going to post it in reduced resolution that seems to look just fine on my screen.

I will attempt to give snapshots of my WIP on this up to the most current image which has no labels because I removed them from the original scan. These are not the full resolution but have been reduced to 100ppi and saved as .jpg @ 85% quality.

** sorry for the long post but I had to get that off my chest **

1. Scanned in & spliced together - I had drawn this decades ago and the first thing I noticed? Holy crap I didn't know anything about river violations! I must have fixed them and saved over my original.
2. Added ocean layers and some texture.
3. Painted the locations in color - In retrospect I should have just redone them separately and cut/pasted them in but oh well.
4. skipped a bunch of steps but now it's got some colors, legend, compass, and my favorite a little critter I scanned in from my sketchbook Oh, and I changed that spiked tower location down south, it just didn't fit well.
5. I experimented with an idea for the mountains and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out I think I'll stick with them. This brings you up to date on the project and next time I will do a proper WIP thread if I can.

[StillCypher]

The colors here are very appealing. I like the forests, but they seem really big in comparison to the unfortunately blurry-looking mountains. Or maybe I've been staring at the computer screen for way, way too long. The smaller lake at the top looks blurry to me, too. The little patches of field and the houses and the bridges are so cute!

[tilt]

love the colors too... very nice.. I'd cut the bottom of the dragon/seasnake and put some waves around it to make it "sink in"
and yes, the colored in mountains are looking blurry, gotta straighten those out

[Gidde]

Honestly, the blurry mountains wouldn't bother me so much except that the coasts/houses/etc. are exact-pencil-precise. So an alternative to crisping the mountains may be blurring everything else?

[Ascension]

It looks like you have two styles - parchment style with hand-drawing and painting for the land and satellite for the ocean. I love your forests, though. The mtns don't fit with them too well just yet but I'm not good enough to do better And yes, you got the gist of what I said right and that's all I can hope for.

[Jaxilon]

Thanks for the comments and critiques.

@Tilt - funny you mentioned dropping the critter into the sea I had that thought at one point but got sidetracked and forgot it. I think he looks better now, thanks for pointing that out.

I did a little work to see if could make the mountains less blurry - I don't really want to go back and hand cut every one of them but if I have to, I have to. Let me know, I think this does look a little clearer. I may also need to try what giddie said and fuzz up some other stuff. I thought they were a little blurry myself but my wife liked them and she's usually more critical than I am. If I have some time I will attempt a "surreal map version" and we can look at them side by side to see which works best.

@Ascension - It might be a case of wanting to put everything into one map instead of patiently using each style. I might have to go back and create a different ocean but dangit, I just love going for that view down into the water. I'll have to think about another way to show the ocean because nothing is really coming to mind at the moment.

I think the mountains have evolved more than anything else if you compare the original scan. I'm still in that stage where I experiment with everything and these are where I ended up.

Back when I first created this map I was probably reading something like The Sword of Shannara and I think I got the idea for the forests from one of those maps or some other book I read around that time, it's too long ago to recall.

Here is the swimming dragon and touched up mountains. I appreciate everyone's comments because it helps me to double check myself as well as come up with new ways to do things - hopefully, in the process, it also helps the map I'm working on.

edit: and it looks like I may have to do something more with the forests because the mountains seem to me not to quite match as far as painterlyness goes.

[Gidde]

I really like the swimming monster

[tilt]

a lot better now - and the critter = perfect

[Seretur]

How you do the mountains depends on which style you want to settle on. I think the blurry mountains match the sea more, but the sharper mountains work better with the forest/towns (although for that they still need to be even sharper).

And I also have to agree with Gidde and Tilt, the serpent is awesome .

[Jaxilon]

Alright, a couple more mods - Turned the opacity up on the Serpent. fogged the outline on the trees which makes it look more painted imo and matching to the mountains - at least that was my hope. I also fogged the city icons a bit so they were not quite so crisp. Sort of trying to make everything meet in the middle I hope.

hittin the sack so this is it for tonight.