Dispatches from a Cartographer - Larithas visits the .....

[Wingshaw]

It's been a while since I updated the Dispatches series, but I've had requests (well, one really - you know who you are) to get back to work, so here goes.

This is a pretty ambitious map. There seems to have been a real burst of great maps lately (I'm looking at you, Max), which have inspired this new style and large scope project. Trying to be pretty experimental, at the moment, so feedback is more than welcome.

Still have to figure out what the map is actually going to show...

[Vellum]

Hey I like the start to this!! I really like the way the islands are popping and the parchment is pretty cool. Will be following along for sure. glad your back on the horse LOL

[- Max -]

Indeed a good start I Like the coastlines. Though I'm not a great fan of the background( too many and large stains to my taste) but I'll keep an eye on this map! What size is it?

[Thordred]

I concur with Max, the stains are a bit much for me. It makes me focus on them instead of the map.

Also a bit blurry?

Otherwise I really like it

[Diamond]

I think once there's some physical features on there, the stains will actually work well with the overall design by balancing all the (presumably to be added) mountains, cities, etc.

I agree with Thordred that it looks a bit blurry. Looking forward to seeing this develop!

[Wingshaw]

Thanks for those comments - pity the stains aren't popular, as I'm really liking the texture of this paper. But Diamond's probably right, they'll disappear once the land starts filling up.

The blurriness is also a deliberate feature, but perhaps it is a bit overdone?

Anyway, new update - not many changes, as I'm not a fast worker, but hopefully starting to give an idea of what's to come. Added some mountains (mostly just for experiments), some cities, a couple of labels, and cleaned up some ugly spots around the islands.

As always, CC encouraged. I'd also like to know what people think of:
A. the mountains - I don't know which style works better at this stage. The ones on the left are fancy but really slow to add; the ones on the right maybe look a bit cartoonish?

B. the city symbols - I'm going for a highly stylised city emblem (I call them medallions) with similar types for towns. What do people think?

C. the text - trying a new font. Don't know if it works. Again, comments would be great.

THW

(by the way: Max, I think it's a bit under 5100x5100 pixels. I wanted to do it bigger, but my computer told me not to)

[Freehand 5.5]

I like the overall idea and concept of this map and I see the work and ambition. But there are quite some details I don't like.

The 4 water lines would be okay, but when it comes to all those little islands (I like them) the number of lines disturbs the clearness of the map. It's a mess.
To me the blurriness of the background looks like it is a very tiny map that was increased to much for the dpi-quality it had.
I don't understand the city symbols. What is it? They look like comic bear faces.
The black of the typo and the mountains is nice and deep, the black of the coastlines is lighter and blurrier, the line of the border is even lighter but sharp again.
There should be more consistency in the line art.

The mountains in he right part don't rock me that much, but the mountains at the bottom are the hell of cool.

[vorropohaiah]

i quite like the city symbols.

i think with regards to the water/coast/wave lines, 3 might be better. and id remove one of the ones closest to the land as they seem very tightly-packed there. other than that i quite like this, including the distressed pape, though id keep it hiddenn while working on it as its quite distracting. then you can mess around with layer styles & opacities and what not once its done to see what you can do

[Davidg77]

This looks really cool!

[- Max -]

Agree with others about waterlines. I really lile the cities icons which gives original feel. The 2 moutains will fit the map i guess. Both are nice