First map, be gentle.

[Robert Boucher]

Going for more of a video game feel to my first map.

Mostly want to ask how my mountains look. They are supposed to be a mix of different types with some area's closer themed to each other. It should be traversable by foot and hike but not by horse or wagon. This is only about 1/6th of the total regional map size and only a small view of the mountains. There is probably twice that many mountains in the full image. The world map is about 20 times this size.

mapadvice.jpg

I also did the castle, let me know what you think.

Everything in the map so far has been hand drawn, no presets. The mountains in the bellow picture are just the rough drafts and are updated in the image above.

crownhold.jpg

I will be continuing to work on the mountains right now, so any advice on them would be appreciated. But castle hints/tips would help as I work on that when tired of mountains for the 80th hour. Thanks!

[Llannagh]

Welcome to the guild!

The mountains look really good! They might need a bit of shading as to let them blend in withe landscape more, but the linework is really good.
The castle is fantastic! How did you do that?

A few suggestions:

- The background texture is very blurry, try a higher resolution
- The rivers are too straight for my taste

That's a good start! Have some rep.

[Robert Boucher]

Welcome to the guild!

The mountains look really good! They might need a bit of shading as to let them blend in withe landscape more, but the linework is really good.
The castle is fantastic! How did you do that?

A few suggestions:

- The background texture is very blurry, try a higher resolution
- The rivers are too straight for my taste

That's a good start! Have some rep.

Thank you for the welcome! And your right. Now that you mention it, I can't unsee it. I tried a new texture, I'm not feeling the partchment look or I'm not applying it right because it looks terrible when I try using it. I will upload a failed attempt soon, but for now this is what I can come up with that looks nicer then what I had.

Also, a small sample of how the whole map will be done, I just doodled up the trees and ridge in 10 minutes to show the style I'm looking for.

The rivers are still rough and I will be adding thinner points beyond those main ones.

mapadvice2.jpg

[CimmerianHydra]

No, I'm not going to be gentle!
Just kidding, I say this map is just awesome. Though, even if I'm a beginner, I could give you some advices:
The map is a bit dark, IMO. I assume you wanted to give the map a "scroll-like" look, I'd suggest trying some layers of a dirty texture set on "Color Burn", and a brighter background.
The rivers are (as Llannagh said) a bit too straight, but they're still awesome. The only thing I'd suggest editing is the Bevel&Emboss you've put in there; it breaks the hand-drawn look you gave to the map.

I agree: that castle is amazing.


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[Robert Boucher]

No, I'm not going to be gentle!
Just kidding, I say this map is just awesome. Though, even if I'm a beginner, I could give you some advices:
The map is a bit dark, IMO. I assume you wanted to give the map a "scroll-like" look, I'd suggest trying some layers of a dirty texture set on "Color Burn", and a brighter background.
The rivers are (as Llannagh said) a bit too straight, but they're still awesome. The only thing I'd suggest editing is the Bevel&Emboss you've put in there; it breaks the hand-drawn look you gave to the map.

I agree: that castle is amazing.


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Thanks! The castle took a few hours on its own. -_- And I have like 6 more castles to go and I still have to add some houses around the outskirts of the castle.

I agree, there was something wrong with the look I had given it and what I was looking for. I do wan't a slightly more colorful map then most people would do. Closer to a game attempting to be a scroll map? (Not sure if there is a term for that, I'm so damn noob.)

Anyways, thanks again for the kind words for my castle, just don't measure the towers height. lol My wife says it ads to the 'hand drawn' feel, but it too bugs me now. lol

[Caenwyr]

Hi Robert, this is looking very promising, especially for a first map! I'll go over some of the features that catch my eye, and I promise I won't (!) be going easy on you. You deserve some real feedback, without being harsh of course!

First off: the background. Not a big fan of that. That's no problem though, it can easily be fixed! Try googling "parchment textures" or "old paper", and you'll surely find something you like.

Next: the rivers. They do look a bit too straight IMO. Also, I'd try to have them originate somewhere in/near the mountains instead of just in the middle of the plain. Try drawing them from the source down, thin at first and wider the further you go downstream. Drawing them this way helps get a feel of the land - you'll find yourself looking for the next suitable spot for the river to flow to, resulting in more natural curves.

The mountains: now these are awesome! They must have cost you a helluva lotta time! Just a tiny remark, if I HAVE to: some seem a bit far from one another, making then look as though they're sitting there all by themselves, but I'm sure that's just temporary, and will be fixed once you start shadowing them. All in all they look amazing, really!

And the castle: wow. Absolutely gorgeous. I wouldn't scale it down, however: it would cause the linework to look too thin... But if you want it to be smaller, you could try scaling it down, and retrace it on another layer with the same brush width you used for the mountains (afterwards you delete the scaled down version of course). Sure, you'll lose some detail, but you'll win bigtime in terms of consistency. You can always use the original castle(s) in a separate box detailing the layout.

All in all a great looking WIP, especially for a first try!

[Robert Boucher]

Hi Robert, this is looking very promising, especially for a first map! I'll go over some of the features that catch my eye, and I promise I won't (!) be going easy on you. You deserve some real feedback, without being harsh of course!

First off: the background. Not a big fan of that. That's no problem though, it can easily be fixed! Try googling "parchment textures" or "old paper", and you'll surely find something you like.

Next: the rivers. They do look a bit too straight IMO. Also, I'd try to have them originate somewhere in/near the mountains instead of just in the middle of the plain. Try drawing them from the source down, thin at first and wider the further you go downstream. Drawing them this way helps get a feel of the land - you'll find yourself looking for the next suitable spot for the river to flow to, resulting in more natural curves.

The mountains: now these are awesome! They must have cost you a helluva lotta time! Just a tiny remark, if I HAVE to: some seem a bit far from one another, making then look as though they're sitting there all by themselves, but I'm sure that's just temporary, and will be fixed once you start shadowing them. All in all they look amazing, really!

And the castle: wow. Absolutely gorgeous. I wouldn't scale it down, however: it would cause the linework to look too thin... But if you want it to be smaller, you could try scaling it down, and retrace it on another layer with the same brush width you used for the mountains (afterwards you delete the scaled down version of course). Sure, you'll lose some detail, but you'll win bigtime in terms of consistency. You can always use the original castle(s) in a separate box detailing the layout.

All in all a great looking WIP, especially for a first try!

Check my new background! I agreed with you 100%. Glad I came here to ask you guys, helped me see with eyes unclouded. lol

As for the rivers, they are still works in progress and will be improved.

Yes, the mountains took me a long time. The worst thing is, as I said this is my first map... so the mountains you are seeing that look 'stand alone' or off a little... where likely one of the first passes. What was happening is after about 5 hours of drawing mountains, I got a little better... So I had to go back from the start and redo them. While doing another 5 hours of redoing mountains... then going 'crap these new mountains look even better then the second pass' and... now I'm working on pass #3 and its starting to feel like I will be doing a fourth... fifth.. etc.. pass..

The castle was my second work, my first is so hideous I won't be sharing it. lol As for not resizing it, I'm not sure how I would be able to get away with that. If I used the same line width for that sized castle, it would be just a black blur?

I just blend my line work after and it looks like all one painted little piece it seems. (Not sure how my third castle will look, the difference between 'castle' one and two is discouraging.)

One quick question, my work area for this map is 6600x5100 pixels is this a normal size?

[Deadshade]

Yes your rivers are too straight and large. If you put a scale bar on your map, you'd realize that your rivers are probably larger than Amazone after only a few dozens of miles from their source.

To the mountains.
Your mountains are definitely quite nice - of course it misses light and shadows but that will surely come.
Now there is a HUGE difference between a mountain and a mountain range. A mountain is just a big piece of rock. But a range is the principe that governs how these pieces of rock are organised.
What you did are just mountains but there is no organisation so there are no mountain ranges.
To show the difference


Random mountain.jpg
This is a mountain

Mountain range.jpg
And this is a mountain range

[Robert Boucher]

Thanks for the advice by the way, I tried a new method, if you mind giving me some feed back on my new mountains.

[Robert Boucher]

mapadvice3.jpg

Ok, after looking at your pictures for a bit, I tried some new mountain styles. I've been practicing for about an hour and not sure on the results. Looks better to me, but not sure if its worth redoing my map in this style.

New style on the left, old style on the right.