Haenthen and the Age of Discovery
Hello people.
So decided to start a map about the discovery of new continents, cultures and places. Not much about the story of the world (as usual), but Im trying a new style. I was inspired by Diamond´s entry in one of the map challenges, and decided to give a shot as inspiration. Hope you guys like.
See ya.
haenthen.jpg
Is turning VERY nice and the concept is great. But there is something on it that makes it hard for me to look for long. Maybe the contrast of colours (?) or the big numbers of continets (?).
Congratulations
Valeu Mateus!Originally Posted by Mateus090985
Im thinking its the contrast. Gonna tune it, anyone feel the same??
the thumbnail is a little "fuzzy" (but they usually are) the higher res version is fine for me. This is a neat idea I like the colors you've chosen as well.
I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....
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I think the ease of viewing could be increased if you reduce the contrast (especially the lighter areas). The number of medium/large islands (not the big continents) could also use reducing, as, right now, it's a bit too 'dalmatian'. Another dalmatian factor is the background grunge; splotches of roughly the same size as the med/large islands scattered evenly across the page, that also don't line up with the landmasses so it's sort of like a double-vision thing going on. I can also see a line pattern in your background grunge that could be contributing to the general dis-ease; very broad vertical/horizontal shifts in value (easier to see when zoomed out)... and some smaller, sharp lines that you could brush out with the clone tool (are you using photshop or ?)... I'll attach what I mean by the broad lines in a pic. Those sorts of lines, crisped up and in the right places, can be very useful for creating a folded/creased paper look--but you have to put them in a logical place.
That's probably enough to take in. Sorry. =]
Basically, you have a lot going on. Structured chaos is usually what I call it in my own stuff, and it usually sneaks in subconsciously when I'm not looking. One time I spelled out the word PEACE in the negative space between a row of conifers in a painting (I decided to keep that one).
example.png
On a happier note, your coastlines and color scheme are very nice.
... Take or leave any of my observations as you see fit; they're just observations.
Chashio thanks for the observations. I tried to mix the textures, but like you said it really gives that line patterns you said. Also thanks for the image displaying them, its gonna help a lot!
So I followed Chashio tips, and changed a few things. Added mountains, trees and other stuff.
haenthen2.jpg
Label observations... Also, there's a wonderful pdf to download about positioning labels on maps. http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...-names-on-maps
You probably don't need the glow around the labels. And I would move the CLAYTIOP, NEW HARREN, and ALDENA labels completely onto the land... there's plenty of space. Also the two island labels to the north don't need lines to point them out (none of the others have them)... and unless you're going to fill it with other things, the big one could fit the label on the land. The VAKIN GULF label would also fit nicely in the middle of the gulf.
Your terrain labels (forests, rivers) and political labels (kingdom, duchies) could stand to be a bit darker. Right now they blend in with the features that they name. It might be better to keep all of the body-of-water labels in a consistent style (I'd suggest what you're using for the seas).
Also, some of your labels are too small to read easily. Part of that could be from compression of the file for uploading, but still.
The last map is a lot better to look. But after what Chashio said I am beginig to think that would be great if you rotate some of the continet, especialy the big one on the lower right.
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