First map, looking for some feedback

[cakeller]

Hey everyone!

I recently started lurking here and going through tutorials trying to learn how the experts do it, and with the help of this community I was able to make my first map! I closely followed RobA's tutorial on regional mapping and Arsheesh's forest tutorial which were both fantastic. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, I had such a blast making this map that I want to improve for next time and hopefully develop my own style.

The Mal'zari Peninsula (for my new dnd campaign I am running)

- cakeller

[justkae]

wow.

Your forests turned out beautifully!!!

[Hai-Etlik]

You have an issue with mismatched sharpness. The forests and mountain symbols have very fine sharp detail while other area features and the rivers are soft and blurry.

You are also using up masses of contrast on decorative area symbols. Contrast is a resource you need to spend carefully on the things that are most important. You had to use harsh halos on your labels in order to make them even vaguely readable because of how much contrast you used up in the features underneath them. The forests and mountains have a great deal of decorative detail that uses up a great deal of contrast without conveying anything. There's also a huge amount of contrast used up between the forests and everything else; far more than is needed.

Your rivers are better than a lot of newbies but you'd have better results if you think in terms of cutting the entire land mass in to water sheds. Each water shed should have a river system flowing out of it (for simplicity you may want to make a few multiriver sheds along coastal areas between the big river systems) but all the land should be covered, the density of the river system within the shed is an indication of how much rain falls in that area (Think of the Nile which has a lot of tributaries in its upper reaches, than then flows through the desert where there are no new rivers forming to join it) Some of your river deltas also seem way to big for their river systems, especially the "Misty Mire"

The shaded relief on the mountains suggests that you are representing actual terrain, but the shape doesn't look like real mountains, at least not any you would find on a world with water to erode them. Decorative details that look like they might be meaningful features are bad practice.

Read "Positioning Names on Maps" by Eduard Imhof. You're again better than a lot of first timers but you could do better. Try to keep labels from intersecting features (You have a lot of labels covering up rivers) Particularly on curved labels make sure to adjust letter spacing. Curved labels always benefit from a bit of increased spacing, and using more can help to fit the label to the feature.

Have a clear purpose in mind for the map. A map is a functional thing so you need to know what the function is to do a good job of fulfilling it. A geophysical reference map, political reference map, nautical chart, population density map, or magical intensity map, are all very different. Include things in the map only if they help that purpose otherwise they are distracting from the things that are important. Include only as much detail as needed and spend your visual contrast wisely.

Have a clear idea of who is making the map. Is this an 'in setting map? If so what are the constraints on technique (Surveying, navigation, drafting, printing, painting, etc) and data (What do they know, what are they mistaken about, what might they intentionally make up to hide ignorance or mislead) Your map is very obviously done on a computer but then has a brushed looking typeface for many of the labels.

[Bioluminescence]

It looks really neat!

One issue I feel is that the trees/forests actually look more prominent than the mountains - so much so that they appear taller than them! This is especially strong where the forest butts up against the two mountain ranges; it looks like the forest ends on flat ground and then a low mountain range eventually starts rising.

I like the dotted lines for the roads and I also like some of the place names though!