Ormbukten

[Clercon]

So this is another map of a part of my Etrakien world. I was home sick a day this week so I decided make a map of the area around the place called Snake bay (Ormbukten in Swedish). The map is done in Photoshop and this time I even decided to make my own city icons. I must say that I'm quite pleased with them, especially the ones with a city wall (supposed to be a larger city). The style is a development of the style I used for my Armadien map, the goal is to make it look like it is painted. And I think I'm there now or at least very close. I should also mention that the whole map is "painted" on top of ones of Coyotemax's brilliant paper textures. It never would have looked this good without it, thanks a million for it!

Anyway the area is dominated by two countries named Andamar and Nib. I'm thinking of them like Germany during the Hansa age, thats why the city names are in German (for those who know German (I don't) I jut pasted some good names together and made some up. So you might get a laugh here :-) ). The area is named Snake bay because every five years the sea serpents return here to play before they mate. A lot of the trade and business in the area is concentrated around the hunt of the serpents, and the making of armor, arrows etc from their skins and teeth.

Hunting Sea serpents is a very hard and dangerous habit though and every time a lot of the boats participating are sunk. For those who survive the fame and riches are very big.

In the west you also have the Etrakien Empires most eastern city Portella, known as the shining star of knowledge with its vast library. A place to visit for everyone who seeks answers hidden in books.

I hope you like it.

[Vanthir]

I like your style, but mountains look too repetitive, however... great work!

Btw. Town etc symbols... You made it by yourself? I like them.

[Clercon]

Thanks for your comment Vanthir. Yes I've done all the symbols myself. The only thing not done by me is the compass (done by Coyotemax here on the forum).

[Vanthir]

I like that oldschool-classic-fantasy style U could draw map in this style for Wheel Of Time or smthn like that.

[Robulous]

Nice colours and border, I like the overall look but the labels aren't very visible. I guess it depends what you're doing with this map, but I'd make the city labels much bigger, and make the region/sea/mountain labels more contrasting, it's hard to see them. On first glance I didn't even notice the sea labels.

[Clercon]

Nice colours and border, I like the overall look but the labels aren't very visible. I guess it depends what you're doing with this map, but I'd make the city labels much bigger, and make the region/sea/mountain labels more contrasting, it's hard to see them. On first glance I didn't even notice the sea labels.

A bit of the idea with the style is actually to firstly show the map. The region/sea/mountain labels are something that should be there if you look for them, but they shouldn't distract you from the map itself. When it comes to the city names I can agree that some of them are a bit hard to read, but I don't want them bigger. If you look at old maps names of towns are seldom bigger then this. In my next map in this style (the Truscian Peninsula) I think I managed to make the names clearer but still keeping the small size.

[Rukia_K]

Nice work, and style!

[Lyandra]

Great map! I especially like the border and city icons. The painted effect it has is very nice too.