[WIP] Parker's Bay Regional Map

[JasperAK]

I just wanted to post this and get some feedback. I used Gidde's Hand Drawn Mapping Tutorial with some additions of my own. What do you think? What could I change/make better.

[Levtrona]

looks great. Is it a real place?
Only one thing for feedback: Could you change the colors of the hills and trees? They appear to be all the same grey color. Making the trees green and mountains the same color as the surrounding background is something i would try.

[JasperAK]

@Levtrona: Thanks for your response. This is Burin peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada. I changed the bay name from Placentia Bay to Parker's bay. Interestingly enough the tree and hill/mountain colors are from a duplicate layer of those mountains set in Gimp to Hard Light 20% or so to allow the background color to come through very subtly. To remind myself why I left them more on the grey side, I just played around with it and changed the hill layer to Soft Light 80% and saw why I went with the more washed out version. By the time the color shown through, they were much too yellow. The trees on the other hand look much better with Soft Light set to about 80%. They have a nice bright green coloration. But yes I would have preferred a little bit more color overall. I do know this, once I started coloring the roads, I couldn't leave the hills and trees like the tutorial showed.

@Didier: Thank you. While I did try to make the map more colorful, I think that washed out look brings it together. I am going to change the trees to be more green though.

EDIT: I meant to reply with quote.

[Didier]

Nice map.
I'll disagree with Levtrona. I think it gives the map a drab, misty feel. Would be really nice for an horror campaign setting.

[ZeniaMaps]

Nice one! To improve, I can give some hints that may be help: I think you need to solve the visual chaos to create a more readable map. Maybe decrease the texture on the water areas, use a sharper shadow for the shorelines to break apart land/sea more and clean up some of the hills/trees overlapping with the shores. The eye usually moves to brighter areas when looking at a picture, so you might want to change the sea color to something darker than land or simplify it. That way the first thing the viewer will see is going to be is where the details are. Another small thing you can do is using a more stylized font for some bigger texts and centering the words when they are stacked.

Keep it up!

[JasperAK]

Nice one! To improve, I can give some hints that may be help: I think you need to solve the visual chaos to create a more readable map. Maybe decrease the texture on the water areas, use a sharper shadow for the shorelines to break apart land/sea more and clean up some of the hills/trees overlapping with the shores. The eye usually moves to brighter areas when looking at a picture, so you might want to change the sea color to something darker than land or simplify it. That way the first thing the viewer will see is going to be is where the details are. Another small thing you can do is using a more stylized font for some bigger texts and centering the words when they are stacked.

Keep it up!

Thank you for your tips. I don't have time to go into them right now--got to get to work--, but I wanted to say your visual chaos comment nailed it. I knew there was something and between that and Didier's comment about it being drab and misty hit it on the head. I wasn't looking so much for cartoon brightness, and though I think all of the pieces look well together, and without more contrast, there's not enough definition between them to draw the eye. I'll play around with your tips tonight, and welcome any others from anyone else here or just passing by.

Thanks to everyone who has come on by.

[JasperAK]

So it took me awhile to get something together. I'm not sure. What does anyone think?