Tulainn [WIP, Critique welcome]

[Seraphine_Harmonium]

Some time ago, I posted a map of a Celtic Fantasy world called Cad Goleor. Now I am posting the map of one particular region, called Tulainn. It is the location of a book I am writing in said world, and is more now a constant work in progress.

Tulainn2.jpg

I am looking for input and critiques regarding how to improve the map.

This map was made with GIMP. Procedurally, I downloaded brushes to use for the buildings, trees, and hills, and the land and water effects were achieved through a mix of "Render Clouds," "Emboss," "Gradient Map" (for colors), and the "GIMPressionist" feature.

[Gidde]

I like the layout! I think you'd find a huge difference if you gave all of your symbols some shadows (for instance, look at the stonehenge-type symbol you have there.)

[mozltovcoktail]

Nice! Great perpective, and I dig the colors!

For me, the water doesn't blend with the rest of the style. It has a 3D realistic quality to it, while everything is is more drawn/cartoonish, for lack of a better term.

[Seraphine_Harmonium]

Nice! Great perpective, and I dig the colors!

For me, the water doesn't blend with the rest of the style. It has a 3D realistic quality to it, while everything is is more drawn/cartoonish, for lack of a better term.

Do you have a suggestion on how I might go about making more stylistically similar water?

[Ourea]

I really enjoy the layout and colors - it has a weird medieval feel to it, overall. However, I have to say I don't believe using many different brushes for your elements was the way to go. Your map lacks cohesion, the styles do not always mesh well. The hills, for example, are a stark contrast to everything else. The farmlands seem to be top-down, while everything else is isometric, and I think I'd personally not use so fuzzy a brush for the dirt roads - to me, at least, it bleeds into the green, but my eyes aren't so good While using brushes from different artists is great, you want to be sure the styles go well together.

For the water, perhaps you could try the wood cut technique (like your original map of Cad Goleor), or the lines coming away from/surrounding the continent? Then with some sort of texture overlap. I think it might suit the style, of course it's always hard to tell until you sit down and fiddle with it. I'm excited to see it develop It's a very interesting little territory with sort of a quaint feel.

[Seraphine_Harmonium]

I really enjoy the layout and colors - it has a weird medieval feel to it, overall. However, I have to say I don't believe using many different brushes for your elements was the way to go. Your map lacks cohesion, the styles do not always mesh well. The hills, for example, are a stark contrast to everything else. The farmlands seem to be top-down, while everything else is isometric, and I think I'd personally not use so fuzzy a brush for the dirt roads - to me, at least, it bleeds into the green, but my eyes aren't so good While using brushes from different artists is great, you want to be sure the styles go well together.

For the water, perhaps you could try the wood cut technique (like your original map of Cad Goleor), or the lines coming away from/surrounding the continent? Then with some sort of texture overlap. I think it might suit the style, of course it's always hard to tell until you sit down and fiddle with it. I'm excited to see it develop It's a very interesting little territory with sort of a quaint feel.

I did a fuzzy brush for the roads, so that it would blend. It wasn't my first choice, but I wasn't liking the looking of the road as much when it was more defined. It was probably just the specifics of how it was turning out, but it looked harsh.

Not sure how to do the farmlands and the hills any better, without scouring the net for brushes, and I don't really know where I'd look for them. I'm not looking to spend any money on this.

[Seraphine_Harmonium]

An updated version of the map. Not sure I will keep all of the changes, but I'm interested is seeing what people think of the new version.

I recolored the hills, involving some shading, tried a different look with the water, added some more shadows, and messed around with the ground and the roads. Let me know what you think is better or worse.

And just for clarity, the body of water in the north is a lake, not an ocean. But for the scale of this particular map I couldn't draw the other side of it. I only bring this up due to Ourea's usage of "water" and "continent" in the same sentence regarding the map.

Tulainn3.jpg

[mozltovcoktail]

I think the new water fits better with the style of the map, though it does still look like a big piece of water texture attached to the map rather than integrated with it. Perhaps some lines around the coast showing the land interacting with the water? Definitely an improvement though.

[Ourea]

I see what you meant about the roads. Still, I quite like it I agree with mozltovcoktail about the water looking sort of pasted on, but it's still definitely an improvement!

[Gidde]

The shadows made a big difference! You have a field hatch showing really light on top of one of the shadows though; your field hatching should be beneath your shadows.