Map of Paragrousi and the surrounding area

[Rubikia]

Hello Cartographer's Guild! First proper post here, and thought to post my WIP map of the city of Paragrousi and the surrounding area. This region is part of my worldbuilding project, Tharr, which most of my maps depict. Paragrousi in particular is the capital of 'Borntar' in the Middle Ages, and I have been inspired by Troy in terms of its downfall, and Venice in terms of its location. I have experimented with a much more 'minimalist' style and I'm trying avoid it looking too busy, but also avoid making it too sparse. It's a fine line that I'm not too good at dealing with. (while the map currently doesn't have a scale, I imagine it would be a pretty small area, with the city of Paragrousi spanning about 3 miles east to west)

If any of you have the time, I would love it if you could critique the map or ask any questions related to it. I also am not entirely sure if it does look too sparse, and if so I'd greatly appreciate it if any of you could give any advice Thank you for looking and hope you're having a good day

Paragrousi.png

[Diamond]

Welcome to the Guild, Rubikia! I guess my initial impression is that yes, it is too sparse on elements, but it really depends on what you're planning to do with it. If the purpose of the map is only to show locations in the immediate vicinity, you've succeeded. If you want a little more local color, you could add roads, maybe put in things like important mines, ruins, roadside shrines, fortresses, etc. One thing I'd definitely do is make the color of the sea darker. right now it's a little hard to tell land and sea apart.

[Rubikia]

Thank you for the advice ! Yeah this map is mainly just to show the surrounding area of the city, but I do plan on adding smaller maps to the side portraying the city and the Zantan Pass in more detail. I've added roads to the map and included fortresses (with squares) so hopefully it's not too sparse looking at the moment. Also changed the colour of the sea, I think it's a bit more visible but I guess it could be darker.

Paragrousi.png

[Rubikia]

I'm reasonably happy with how the map is now after I've made a couple changes (I've changed the colour of the coastlines and rivers to a darker blue and I've thinned the lines of the contours) and I have started work on the 'next stage' of the map: Adding another, larger scale, map of where in Borntar the Paragrousi area is.

Paragrousi Big.png

At the moment I'm not too fond of how the larger map on the right looks, and I suppose its because of my nemisis' reappearance, sparseness. I might go on and add propper contours for that one. Would love to know what anybody thinks of the two, and I welcome any critique with open arms, as that always helps

[Kellerica]

I like your coastlines!

As for the sparseness, I'm tempted to concur with D - it really does depend on what your goal is. I'd personally love to seem some sort of an elevation map. And also, I'd opt for a clearly different color (and maybe a bit larger spacing between the dots) for the roads. As they are, on a glance they kinda get mushed together with all the other lines in the map and the look is a bit restless to my eye.

[Rubikia]

Thank you !

I saw what your could see your point on the roads, and yeah they were quite hard to pick out upon a glance. I have since made them a bit larger, changed the colour to a brown and spaced out the dots a little more, I think they're a bit more visable now (I hope ). And I added elevation to the large map on the right ! Actually quite happy with how the one on the right is looking now, I feel as though the simple addition of the elevation actually makes the coastline seem more defined, but maybe that's just me

Paragrousi Big.png

Hope you all like it now !

[Veldrin]

It's a good map in my opinion I like your landshape and the colour are not chocking to me.
I find it legible and I guess that's what you want, so good job with it ! Which software do you use btw (I bet on Illustrator)?

The only thing I would note is that the little square on the large map doesn't match exactly the lighter one, but it's not a real problem.

[Rubikia]

Thank you
I use Inkscape now (find it a lot better than my former tool, GIMP), not Illustrator , though I think Illustrator is also vector based.

Do you mean the dotted square on the larger map doesn't line up with the smaller map in size, or in its contents? I tried to trace the border of the smaller map as best as I could, and I streamlined the coastlines in it so it didn't look to jumbled in the larger map. I think the fact that I had to shrink the smaller map quite a bit to get it in position meant that I wasn't able to trace the same details in the coastline, but I feel like that would have been too busy.
If you meant the squares on the border of the larger map, they portray 1 mile each, and the rectangles on the smaller maps border also represent 1 mile each.

[Kellerica]

Definitely an improvement on the roads!