the Reaches

[Cyruss]

NRv1.jpg

Background: What you see before you is one of the four known regions of a fictional kingdom used for pen and paper purposes. To the south, the rest of the kingdom. To the northwest, hostile uncharted territory ripe for exploration. Each sub-region of the NR has its own unique features, perfect for any would-be adventurers.
Process: The Northern Reaches is created in my own style, one that uses Adobe Illustrator + Photoshop. The trees are all vector, painstakingly placed on the map by hand. Textures and color is painted and placed with Photoshop. The ocean was done in a style I picked up on from here, off a tutorial I downloaded. I lost the PDF but had the process saved on a separate file so I can not give credit where credit is due. I have not kept track on the hours it took but a guess would place it at 50+.

Feedback is appreciated!

[arsheesh]

I think it is quite a nice map Cyruss . The colors are nice, I like the sea texture, and compass looks nice. What are the shadows to the West and South meant to indicate?

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[njordys]

Nice map. I am really fond of this type of forest, the number of variations are quite impressive. Must have taken alot of work.

I would have placed the different type of tree's a bit more unevenly, have one forest consist of a majority of one type of tree, other forests with another. That would make the forests more distinct and seperated them from each other.

[Sinnyo]

Further echoing of positive response! I love the colours and the layout of this map, given the way it sits as a page.

The only feedback I'd offer would be directed towards your lettering, as there are a couple of instances where labels are overlapping each other. It's tough to avoid, but I think - for example - it'd be worth your while shuffling the "King's Highway" and "Marshall Road" labels along, or putting a more space between individual words, so that they don't cross the "Coedin Green" label. I only do it myself every now and then because I spotted the technique on London A-Z maps.

[grangarian]

I have mixed feelings about this map. Overall i really like the style, the colors, the shape. And the fact that some parts are made using Illustrator. For me, the variety of trees are just too much. Simply put i think there's no way those different kind of trees would grow so random. And there are some minor flaws i noticed.
Overall it's really nice work.

[Gidde]

I really like this map. My only complaint is that the heavy-texture of the sea seems to clash with the illustration-style elements on the land.