First Map

[Cookierobber]

Well, I introduced myself yesterday, so I may as well get on to posting my first map!
There's a little bit of story behind this map - my cousin runs RPGs with his friends, and I thought a cool idea for a present for him would be a fully realised map of his world. As such, I didn't come up with the placement of climates, or shapes of continents, or anything. That means that while the climates are quite unrealistic, I'm sticking with them - I'm only really worried about the aesthetic style. Without further ado, here's the map!
Map 4 - Copy (5400x2700).jpg
Thoughts?

[SteffenBrand]

Well done, Cookie! But I have some thoughts about this:

1. Because of the glow of the continents and the bright colors of the land masses it somehow looks 'fuzzy' on the borders. I'd recommend trying to make the water darker / add a little darkened outline-ish thing / make the glow darker instead of lighter (yes, this would be unrealistic, but it probably would help the viewer to get the details better).

2. I'd play a little bit with darker tones and the saturation of the colors. You could try to darken parts, saturate rich jungles more and so on. The water far brom coastlines would also be very dark.

3. Scale! (and also a border around it all makes much of the finishing cleanup I figured out) =)

4. Add some stuff for fluff: Ice floating around, probably some ice on the highest mountaintops, you could add some clouds over the seas (also not everyone is a fan of that).

That is it I can think of first (and all of this are suggestions). All in all this is really good already, I hope to see more of this! Keep it up! =)

[Cookierobber]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I'll reply to each of your points in turn.
First, I see what you mean about the borders being sort of 'fuzzy'. The copy I posted up has been reduced in size from the original, which probably accounts for a little of that. However, you do still have a point. I might tinker with that a little bit, see if I can improve it. Even if I don't, it should still be fine though - the final map will be printed out as a poster, so details like that shouldn't be too much of a concern.
Second, you're right about the tones/saturation of some colours. I do intend to go over that, and improve it a bit before I'm done.
As for scale, I will add that in due course. Bear in mind that this is still a WIP map, so final details like that, as well as labelling countries, will be added at the end.
And for your last comment - yeah, I'm working on that. I'm currently adding ice at the south pole, so you should be able to see that in my next update. Also, there is currently snow on most of the mountains - however, it is quite subtle, so I'll work on making it more visible. As for clouds - I probably won't do that. Adding clouds in some parts and not others would feel inconsistent to me, and I don't particularly want to obscure details.
All in all, thanks for the suggestions, and for your positive comments! My next update for this map should be up soon.

[Chick]

Pretty nice job for a first map! I'll pay big compliments to your rivers, most "first maps" don't get them even close to right, but you have!

I agree with Steffen, darken the water, a lot.

I don't like the boundary between the brown and green near the top of the second continent (the one shaped vaguely like North America). If it is meant to be a huge cliff, edge of the lava sort of thing, you can draw some vertical lines to make it look cliff-like. In that case, you probably also want to make the coastlines into cliffs, too.

If it is simply a boundary between desert and grasslands, make it less ... umm ... strange

[Cookierobber]

Thanks. Yeah, frequenting these forums for a long time before posting has given me a fairly good grasp of the mistakes most first maps make.

Okay, as for the boundary, it's meant to be like that. I know it looks strange, but you can see I have more natural looking boundaries in the south of that continent, as well as in the east and west continents. The story behind that boundary is that the god of fire lives in that desert. His influence shapes the region around him - it's why that area's a desert at all, rather than being snowy, and is also the reason why the land to the east is covered in ice, despite being on the equator. Basically, that very dark area is a charred, burnt forest and grassland, which rapidly gives way to desert. It looks very strange because it is.

But apart from that, thanks for your comments! I'm working on darkening the sea now.

[Cookierobber]

Ok, so here's the latest version of it. I've redone some mountains and darkened the sea quite a lot.
Map 4b (5400x2700).jpg
What do you guys think?

[Chick]

more darker, including the shallows!

[Cookierobber]

You think so? Well, I'll try it out, and see how it looks.

[Azélor]

Actually, depending what style you are aiming for, I think it's dark enough.

[foremost]

MOAR DARKER!

(Actually, I agree with Azelor on that matter, it's plenty dark for your style)

Kudos for posting a first map. I'd say that though it looks basic, as would be expected, it doesn't make many mistakes. if you were to add further things to make it more interesting (say towns, labels, geographical features, whatever you fancy) it'd could look really good really quick.