Attempting to render a semi-realistic coastline

[Brea Stark]

Hello All!

This is my first post in the forum! It's a pleasure to meet you all, I'm so inspired by the maps posted here! I'm a long time D&D nerd and thought a few weeks ago I'd try my hand at mapping for my new campaign. This is my third attempt, having done a world map and another localized map!

coast test.jpg

I havent even started on the land yet, but I'm having a lot of difficulty rendering the coastline in the bottom left, I'm going for a sort of hybrid blend between a photo-realistic satelite image and a watercolor represenation and no matter what I do, I cant seem to get the water to blend with the sand in a way that looks ~natural~. Ive tried adding little squiggly highlights along the shore to make it look like the waves coming in, but it looks terrible! I dont suppose anyone here can point out what I'm doing wrong? I dont really have an eye for drawing!

[Mouse]

Hello and welcome, Brea

What is the scale of the map?

By that I mean are we at such a large scale here that individual waves would be visible, or smaller scale than that?

[Brea Stark]

Got so excited about posting for the first time I forgot to mention scale! doh! The long white structure on the right is 30ft in height so the scale is reasonably small. This is a crop of the full map however, approximately a quarter of it. I tried adding in some individual waves but it ended up looking messy. Here's the full image! It needs a lot of work, don't laugh =P

corsica2.jpg

[Mouse]

But... the water is already beautiful!

I can't see a way of improving it

The little waves you have drawn are, in my opinion, just right - but I don't expect you to just take my word for it

Once you are satisfied that you have your answer/solution, you might want to continue discussing your map on a new thread in whichever of the Work In Progress forums seems to best fit the description of what you are drawing.

I'm looking forward to seeing this develop

[Pananacakes]

The water really is good looking. As for the beach, if it was me making it I'd make the yellow more subtle, like make the beach area more subdued and closer to the land color. But that's only as it is now. Go on and do more to the land as you've planned and I might change my mind about the beach. It might be too early to tell.

[Brea Stark]

Thanks Mouse! I'm working really hard to improve my technical skills, I've only been drawing for a few weeks now so I think it's going to be tough for me to be happy with what I've done! I really feel like the edge of the water needs *something* but I just can't figure out what! I'll upload my map to the WIP forum!

Thanks for the feedback Pananacakes! I think you're right about the sand, I'm terrible with colors! I'll try playing with it and hopefully it'll look a bit better!

[Pananacakes]

You know how you have a drop shadow under the land? The unshaded coastline has a very narrow light line between land and water and I can see it as the foam of breaking waves. Less so on the dimmer shadowed side. What does it look like with that effect on all shores?