WIP Taevra - Critique

[Adenial]

Hey everyone!

This map is a part of a personal writing project and some critique would really help me out. The project itself is a choose your own adventure-like story which I’ve dubbed “TEA,” because at the start I became so engrossed in writing it that the only thing I drank for a week was tea, which ended up causing a caffeine induced panic attack. The area in the map is called Taevra, which comes from my constant misspelling of the project name and the name “Evra” which has historical significance within the world.

I’m hoping for some critiques on the realism of the world’s geographical features (mostly rivers and mountains) and overall shape aesthetics. So far I don’t know what I want in terms of design, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out as I go.

Taevra is not the whole planet, just what the people who live within this isolated section refer to the world as; it consists of seven existing regions and one fallen region. I imagined the marshy islands in the bottom left to be about the size of Ireland. Please ignore the temporary muddy brown:

taevraa_adenial.png

So far I have a basic idea of the weather and landscape within each region, as well as the cultures, international relations, and history. Here in red you can see where I plan to put the mountain ranges and regions. Sorry if it’s a bit difficult to read at the moment:

taevrab_adenial.png

I still have a lot to do before I'm anywhere close to done. More to come as I continue work on this map.
Thanks for reading!

[kacey]

There really isn’t much to critique here, what you have so far is really promising and I can’t wait to see those mountains come to life because you’re planning on them so far is truly stunning. If I had to nit pick something I would tone down the the white lines in the water a touch, but honestly it would be a nit pick and nothing more...This looks great so far, and welcome to the guild I look forward to seeing more of you’re work, it’s always exciting to see talented new map makers here.

[Ilanthar]

It's indeed looking like a very promising start .

[MistyBeee]

Hmm, this will definitely be a thread to keep an eye on. Those mountains look really interesting, Adenial !

[Texas Jake]

Nice looking start. I find it interesting that you put the rivers in before the mountains.

[aeshnidae]

Welcome to the Guild! This is off to a great start! Will there be hills before the Fields of Vardan? The rivers (which look really good) all hit a point and turn due south.

[Adenial]

Thanks so much to everyone for the comments, they are really encouraging! I'll probably post an updated map in a few days, though I've mostly been trying to figure out some colours, designs, and how to deal with the mountains.

Nice looking start. I find it interesting that you put the rivers in before the mountains.

Thanks! I always find if I draw my mountains first I never seem to leave any room for long flowing rivers, which I adore. (I also might love drawing rivers and hate drawing mountains.)

Welcome to the Guild! This is off to a great start! Will there be hills before the Fields of Vardan? The rivers (which look really good) all hit a point and turn due south.

Thank you so much! I hadn't been planning to put any hills there, but I see what you mean. I was actually planning for most of that area to be flat farmland, the Last Fields of Vardan being the last arable land for rye before it becomes too cold. I think I'll either have to redo the river so it meanders a bit more or cut out some of the plains to add in highlands and a canyon for the river.

[Kellerica]

Oh my, I love how this is looking so far! Beautiful shapes in the coastlines and I'll second Beee on the interesting mountains, I really like the way they look this far. And welcome to the Guild, too, seems like you're already a cartographic force to reckon with... I can't say I have any feeback at this point, I think the features look great. Keep it up, I'll be watching the progress on this with great interest.

I'd love to see some texture on this, btw.

[JonathanCR]

This is really striking - I really like it! Is the Frozen Realm of Ryntr a high plateau? That would explain the frozenness, but it's not obvious from this map style. (It reminds me in that respect of Tolkien's Dorthonion.) Or perhaps it's cold because the mountains cut off the prevailing winds from the west - though while that would lead to colder winters, the summers would be warmer. Also the lake at the bottom left seems to have a river running into and out of it a couple of times on the western side, which looks odd!

[Adenial]

I ended up having a much busier week than I expected, and didn't get to work on my map nearly as much I'd have liked. This update is mostly about the colour, something I always struggle with. I'm not quite happy with where it is at the moment, but I think I'm almost there. Please disregard the messy writing and very goofy looking monsters for the moment.

I'm really happy with the water colour, but can't find the land to match it. I've tried light and dark colours and greens, reds, and yellows. Any input on colour would be really helpful, I'm having a lot of trouble finding what works!

taevrac_adenial.png

I was originally planning to do the monsters in dark red, but I think I'm going to end up giving them more blue and greens as well. The mountains will be completely redrawn so that they are a bit steeper (and possibly smaller so that I can cram a few more in). Oh, and I added forests!

taevrad_adenial.png

I'm not happy with the definition between the land and sea when looking at the full image, but I think it looks okay when zoomed in. I've tried making the inner land line lighter but it doesn't seem to help. I'm also not happy with how the inner land line rounds out the ends of the rivers, you can see in some areas I tried to make them go into points but it just looks silly. I'm not sure if it's a good choice, but I love the pink water around the coves and river mouths.

And the red! I have an obsession with using deep red when I know I shouldn't; I just can't help myself.

Next up is the land texture and figuring out interesting ways to show what the terrain is like in each place. The biggest struggle will probably be the black sand beaches (from past volcanic activity) in Northern Darvany and the small island of the Asher Territory, as well as drawing highlands on the thin islands of Farlia. I've considered adding small landscape drawings either on the area itself or off to the sides like a border, but ideally I'll figure a way to make it feel more cohesive. Hopefully by next week I'll have a real border and scale, a land colour I love, and finished mountains!

I also happened to find my original drawing while cleaning this week! Not a clue why I chose to flip it.

taevrae_adenial.png

Thanks for reading!

[QUOTE=JonathanCR;385922]Is the Frozen Realm of Ryntr a high plateau? That would explain the frozenness, but it's not obvious from this map style. (It reminds me in that respect of Tolkien's Dorthonion.) Or perhaps it's cold because the mountains cut off the prevailing winds from the west - though while that would lead to colder winters, the summers would be warmer./QUOTE]

The mountains were meant to be a barrier that kept the cold in, it's supposed to be a frozen wasteland with permafrost and no trees. I hadn't realized that would make the summers warmer, so maybe that does call for a nice cold plateau. Lore-wise it can't be warm, because there's a sort of time magic leaking into it that causes time pockets and eventually leads to everything being frozen in time - and I guess I just like the metaphor.