Continents [WIP]

[Falstyr]

Hello,

Well it took me a while. Been lurking around for quite some time learning about cartography. My aim is not high detailed photographic maps. The setting I use is Dungeons and Dragons in an era which would translate to the regular world as...old hehe. In those days people drew maps, but to say they were accurate would be very optimistic. So having unexplored regions and some silly drawings would actually be understandable. Still I aim to improve a bit here and there.

While lurking I came across brushes and other useful textures which can be used with Photoshop CS2. But so far I've not found anything that would make woods and forests look like I want them too.

At this time I'm working on 5 continents in total. Each with a different set-up. The ones attached are hand drawn concept of Imbelote and the "end" product after some photoshopping. Each continent lies under a different moon/sun. Imbelote is a temperate climate while the neighbouring continents are deserts or chilly icy tundra's and then there is a red crimsoned continent where evil dwells.

I dread when it is time to work on the villages and dungeons, but that'll be a while and will learn from you guys untill then

Scales aren't ideal. I mean the trees are almost the size of mountains that reach the skye hehe.

[Tancread]

Looks good, the mix of drawn woods and villages and icon hills is a bit jarring, but the map looks fine to me overall. I can easily see rolling for wandering monsters on it.

[Falstyr]

Any suggestions how to improve the trees and city/village/capital icons?

[J Digory]

I'm no expert, trust me. But I would suggest making the art for the trees/towns etc sharper. It looks like you are using a blurry pen tool. The rest of the map is sharp, while the hand drawn icons have a washed look to them.

[Falstyr]

Those are brushes I picked up from these boards. Unfortunately no idea how to sharpen them. Also used a top down texture for trees, but that looked even worse. Seen some people make lush woods so trying to figure out how they did it. Also got Cities from PNG files out of CC3, but they don't seem to fit style wise.

Also for desert/ice continent. Any suggestions for those before starting on it?

The Ice continent I'd like to do a bit Norse themed. So barbaric tribes, centaurs, ogres and such. Desert continent obviously more Egyptian/Arabic. But the desert ground texture is awful as well hehe.

[Tancread]

I am playing with getting my forests to look deeper as well, I will yell if I find anything good. As for the towns and woods vs. the mountains, I like the hand drawn ones better myself. I would draw some mountains to match. Still, the map isn't bad at all, better than my first couple of tries and I am only on my third now.

[Steel General]

You might want to register and look around on the Dunjinni forums...lots of nice user created art that you can download. I've found a bunch of stuff to use either as is, or with a little modification.

[Falstyr]

Thank you for the link General. Have been downloading ISO's a lot last evening and resuming today. There are cities and tree symbols which I'll replace the current ones with. Also found some hills and such which will be experimented with to give it all a more fuller look.

One thing is for certain. The other maps will become a whole lot better because of it.