If labels are a problem, why not do something in a language not found on Earth: eg. runes, obscure scratches, hieroglyphs etc. Just a thought.
Also, here's my two cents on the map. Foremost might be right about adding a few details to 'spruce it up.' But if you didn't want to do that, maybe you could really try to make it look like a forsaken and forlorn land, perhaps slightly melancholy, like a place that has been abandoned or lost, with winds howling over empty dunes. To achieve this effect, I think you could aim to add as few details as possible. The map already works well in this way, but could still be enhanced further. What d'you think?
THW
That's actually where I was going with it. The details I add are mostly to the land. Adding white and a slight concavity to show the salt flats, dried rivers, cracked lands, dunes and bare mountains, etc. I might pull the town's label off or just mark it 'ruins'. I also have an idea for the lat/long lines that I'm working on. I think it's turning out nicely, but I'm not quite done with it yet.
Alright. I'm happy with the lat/long lines at the moment. Now for the real question... what's everyone else think?
### Latest WIP ###
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Cool idea - gives the whole piece a lot mappier feeling - but maybe make them a little thinner ...
Wouldn't lines of latitude and longitude be straight?
The best maps are the ones we like the most after looking at the longest.
Well my goal with them was to use them to follow the ground and lat/long lines. Technically they should be straight and, I believe, one of the previous images shows them as such; however, I felt it looked a little bland and not quite in keeping with the image. So, instead, I decided to have them follow contours so as to show where those lines would lay on the ground rather than a more ethereal/sky approach. The lines probably aren't perfect, but I tried to do the best I was able to since I had to do it all by hand. In the future, if I had to do it all again, I would plan those lines out in advance.
Alright, after a bit of debate with a friend of mine, I decided to do the center line straight and use a bit of overlay to add to the lights and shadows to give it 'height' as well as a bit of eraser action. With that said, I think I have sufficiently beat this dead horse into submission.
*edit* I lied... I had to touch it a little more.
### Winner ###
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Last edited by ChickPea; 08-26-2018 at 08:59 PM. Reason: Added winner tag
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