My first map... (yet to be named)

[Sinastir]

I'm new to cartography, new to photoshop, new to DMing, and new to DnD. I've got a lot to learn, but I am enjoying it quite a bit. This is my first map done in an effort to start a story for a campaign. I followed Ascension's atlas style tutorial, and after a few false starts, I am finally getting to a point where I think it's looking acceptable. Feedback and critiques will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for looking!

[Gidde]

Welcome! I think you'll have fun with all of your new hobbies, they enrich each other beautifully Good work with Ascension's tut there, looks great for a first map. The only suggestion I'd offer is to tone down your text a little. It's a bit overpowering as is.

[Diamond]

Sure looks a heck of a lot better than my first try with that tut! I like the landmass layout; looks kind of like a broken hand.

The only things that jump out at me as 'off' are, like Gidde mentioned, the overwhelming-ness of the text, and the continental shelf - in places in looks like it's reversed, as if the landmass is at the bottom of the ocean, and the shelf is actually a cliff instead leading down to the land.

[tilt]

thats a good start, and yep - the lettering is a bit overpovering so lighten them up a bit ... and look forward to many good years with D&D, I've been playing 30 years myself

[Sinastir]

Thanks for the feedback!

As for the text, I'll tone it down. It's mostly just a place holder now until I figure out what the lands are called. Although, i may scrap the idea of having divided territories. still debating about that.

The shelf looked off for me as well, but I wasn't sure what I had done wrong. I tried altering it and I suppose I'll get around to trying to fix it again.

Thanks!

[Sinastir]

I decided to try out the tutorial a few more times to see what things do when I change them instead of following the tut to a T. I updated this first map as well.

Changes:
Took off labels.
Removed territory boundaries.
Accented the rivers.
Removed some mountains and hills from the southern dry-lands.
Smoothed out the desert that's in between the two central mountain chains.
Added an oasis. (really curious what people think of this and what I should do to improve it).


Things to ponder:
While unintentional, I see a dog (or deer) and a rabbit in this map...



Thanks for looking and all the feedback!

[tilt]

nice doggie.. sit! *lol* ... well, that sometimes happen - but now you'll have to make a quick decision if you should change your landmasses - cause you will always see it

[rdanhenry]

Yeah, I've thought of it as the Dog Continent since you first showed it, but as long as you don't put in a big lake or volcano to serve as an "eye", I think it'll be okay. Our brains just like to make pictures out of splotches.

[Diamond]

As far as the oasis goes, I think it depends on what scale the overall map is at. If this is a continent, the scale's much bigger, making that oasis look like a huge fertile valley instead. Also, it seems a little too artificially round. But then, I know jack about oases, so that may be perfectly normal.

[Sinastir]

Hmm, I haven't even thought of scale. Is there a tutorial for that as well I could learn from?