Land of Valtor... mostly

[callmeapple]

Hey guys. This is a map I'm working on for a story that I've mapped out. Now, obviously there are some things in there that need to be addressed.

1) The Green Blob in the northwest. This is supposed to be some sort of forbidden forest (or ghost forest.)
2) The Yellow blob in the south is supposed to be a military academy. The idea is that it's mostly a field where they simulate battles and such.
3) The Black Flags are supposed to be fortresses. (North to South Solaris, Exilium, and Reltan [and yes, Reltan is a fortress AND a city])
4) The Blue X's are ruined cities (North to south Krov, Arcis, and Trecis.)
5) The red line is where I want to put a canyon that will split that forest in half.

Now, the canyon is where I need the most help. I could use some ideas for how to show 1-4 for what they are, but I have no idea about the method of creating the canyon. I'd appreciate any help at all. Thanks so much, guys!

[tilt]

I believe Ramah has just made a map with a huge canyon so try looking at that (or browse finished maps) - otherwise its basicly draw and oblong edgy shape and put some down strokes on the inside.
If I should critize your map a little, I'd say that the shape of the continent is way to smooth, gotta rough that up and perhaps look to OldGuys coastline tutorial. The rivers can't split up so cut off the small river to lake D and you're fine there
The flags could use a little shadow to make them "stand up" more
but great work and have some rep with my +7 mace of nice repping for your first upload

[callmeapple]

Hey Tilt. Thanks very much for the reply and for your ideas. You're absolutely right about the coastline. I have been raising the old eyebrow about the coast's shape but couldn't quite figure out what was wrong with it. lol I'll check out that tut for sure.

The Flags will actually be disappearing as soon as I find a good fortress symbol brush... thing. There were a couple of fortress-like brushes that came with the tree brushes that I used here. Problem is that they're color-fixed, which I'm not much of a fan of, and I'm not too big on mixing 8-bit nintendo-style brushes into what I'd like to be a Tolkien style map.

And, as far as the canyon goes, I've never been much of an artist. I'll definitely take your direction and see what I can come up with. All 10 fingers crossed.

Thanks, again, for all your help. And for the rep. That mace sounds like it gives a pretty good clunking.