Where be Lions? Several Years' Worth of Maps

[HereBeLions]

Man, it's been a while since I've posted here. I've still been making maps, so here's a collection of what I've been working on. None of it is for anything in particular, just my own amusement and building up a portfolio, plus learning Wilbur. They're pretty varied, I've been trying to develop a board range of skills.

Random Nations Map 001.png
This is a pretty old experiment in making something look 'fantasy' - in hindsight I should have used a more legible font, but I'm still happy with the map itself.

Colbrane Compiling 2.png
And an experiment in a more paint-y style, the type you see in those lovely tabletop game maps. This was a fun one!

Cabin.png
Yet more experimenting, floor plans! I spent so many hours on houseplanshelper.com researching this.

City Map Final 72DPI.png
I'm not hugely pleased with this one - it was an awful lot of effort doing all those tiny little buildings, and I gave up too early. Another detail pass, adding roof lines and some shading, would have made this one much nicer, I think.

Random Icy Hellhole Map 001.png
My first real attempt at Wilbur. It's a little clunky, and I didn't have the patience to go through and add in all the rivers, but it was a good learning experience. It's supposed to be an Earth-like world at the outer limit of the 'Goldilocks zone', where the tropics would be like Siberia and it would only get worse the further north or south you went. The ice represents the extent of ice in summer in both hemispheres, winter ice would be significantly bigger.

Zi Map Redo Redo 2 mED.png
A pretty exaggerated Wilbur map, and an attempt at forcing sense into a pre-existing fictional map (for the Zoids universe, if anyone's curious). I've been through three iterations of the terrain and I still can't find a nice balance between 'mountains visible' and 'mountains waaaaayyy too big', so no doubt there will be more iterations yet.

Samorna Proper.png
My most recent map, another fantasy one to try and bring together stuff I've learned. I'm really happy with how this one came out. This is the actual finished version; I was a muppet and uploaded an unfinished version before!

[Diamond]

I actually like that city map quite a bit - it wouldn't take much to really make it shine. Like you said, go back and add some subtle roof detail, maybe a light color for each district, some farms, trees, etc outside the walls. Nice work!

[Mouse]

I agree with Diamond

That city map could be made into something really fantastic with a little more patience and a bit of experimentation

The others are quite good as well. What software did you use to do the last one ?

[HereBeLions]

Thank you very much Diamond, Mouse C= Maybe I'll go back to the city map, or maybe I'll start a new one and document the process in a thr. And Mouse, I made the last map with Photoshop CS5.1, plus a tiny bit of Illustrator CS5.1 for the dotted lines, mostly because I hate doing vectors in Photoshop.

[Weery]

Hi HereBeLions,

The city map was first to catch my eye here as well. I think it could be fantastic. It's very nice as it is!

I also liked the trees in the first one though I think something could be done to make the labels and symbols pop a bit more.

And I liked everything about the last one from colours to symbols to fonts. But it still feels slightly bare or unfinished. Maybe a legend, more labels or some work on white area?

Really excellent work and thanks so much for posting all these

[HereBeLions]

Thank you, Weery! Especially thank you for prompting me to take another look at the version of the last map I uploaded, which it turns out is an earlier version! So you're right in that it looks unfinished, because it is. Here's the finished version, and I'll update the OP as well.
Samorna Proper.png

[Svein007]

Thank you, Weery! Especially thank you for prompting me to take another look at the version of the last map I uploaded, which it turns out is an earlier version! So you're right in that it looks unfinished, because it is. Here's the finished version, and I'll update the OP as well.
Samorna Proper.png

Very beautiful, I am looking for someone to make maps for me if you are interested...

[DanielHasenbos]

Very nice. I really like the first and last map you posted. The first one reminds me of the maps from Middle Earth and Narnia (:

[HereBeLions]

Thank you, Daniel! I love both those maps (who doesn't, really?), so that's a huge compliment.

[Cyrus Deshahl]

These all look great, the first one most of all!