Delora's World Map

[carlosmrocha]

Hi Everyone!

This is my first post here. I'd like to share the world map I designed for one of my novels, Lens of Doom.

delora[1].jpg

What do you think?

[Kellerica]

Not a bad first map! (although you might want to get more familiar with the forum's gategories and subforums - right now your map is on the Tutorials/How-To section, while a more appropriate location would be either Finished Maps, or the Regional/World Mapping WIP section, if you are planning to work on it further)

You have some interesting continent shapes going on, and I like the overall layout of the lands, rhumblines and other elements. The coastlines and rivers are looking a bit rough still (are you using a mouse or a tablet?), but that is something that will get better with practice. You are certainly on the right track, keep at it!

Welcome to the Guild!

[carlosmrocha]

Hey Kellerica, thanks a lot for the feedback!

I sure need to get more familiar with the forum's categories and so on...

About the rivers and coastlines, I think there's room for improvement, yes... I have a simple tablet, but still getting the hang of it.

Thanks again!

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

Hi Carlos. I like the layout and colors. What I would change is the main water texture, the scale doesn't match the rest of your textures (it looks too big). I would also remove the compass texture, since it has lines that only go on top of sea for some reason, and have text unrelated to your own map on it. If you just wanted a compass but didn't want to draw it yourself, you could simply mask out the unnecessary lines and texts. There's also the dark brown overlay in some parts on the map that looks out of place, perhaps because incorrect blending mode and opacity of that layer is used. This is easy to change, and I'd try different options until it fits in with the textures underneath.

You already mentioned there's room for improvement with rivers, and that you have a tablet. Here's what I would do: go look at Earth maps. Find some rivers. Try your best to copy what you find, as an exercise. It will give you some ideas and inspiration. You could get better at drawing rivers just by tracing real images as well. Don't assume a river is just a squiggly line, and everyone can draw a squiggly line. This is a very common mistake artists make: thinking they can draw something from memory instead of studying their subject. Don't rely on creativity and imagination if you haven't done some homework first. One of the most time consuming but important skill for an artist is research.

There's another issue that is the visibility of the rivers on your map. The light blue color is hard to see in some spots. you could try adding an outline, just like you did for the landmasses or try a different color. I'd do the outline. Also you might want to consider that on most maps that show large areas, not every small island or river is shown.

As far as storytelling goes, I've noticed several towns are in the vicinity but not on a river. Normally people would most likely settle on the banks of rivers, often building bridges across as the settlement grows, as access to water has always been important; take Nile for a striking example, even though crocodiles kill thousands of humans. On your map it kind of looks as if the rivers never existed and then one day appeared in completely random places.

I hope you find these tips and observations useful.