First Cartography Attempt...

[MathCampbell]

Hey everyone..

My first attempt at cartography, and I now it's cheating a bit, but rather than try and come up with a fantasy location for my map (and have to design rivers, mountains, cities etc.) I figured I'd use my home area...

Traced the coastline from existing maps and have really gone from there....still trying to eke out the look & feel; obviously I've not added much but the land and sea so far...
Still to go I have to put towns, rivers, principal buildings, more roads (only two so far!), and well, everything I guess...

I'm not sure about the colours yet...been trying darker desaturated blues, brighter ones...or a darker land and no colour on the sea....
Anyway...
Constructive criticism welcomed...
Greenock-Fantasy-Map-Resized.jpg

[Chick]

A very nice start, now keep building on it. There are plenty of tutorials on various styles of maps in the Tutorials section of this forum, so take your time and try out some different ones.

[Ilanthar]

I like what you have so far. If you can, I would erase the white line of the coastal line (inland).

[MathCampbell]

Thanks guys...

Still struggling with my colour scheme here tbh.
I can't decide between a very saturated orangey-land with dark blue sea look, or a more classical 'off-white with desaturated sea' look...

What do you all think?
Greenock-Fantasy-Map-Resized2.jpg

[ChickPea]

Personally, I like the dark sea. It's more striking. However, it all depends what you want to do with the map ultimately.

[MathCampbell]

Hmmm...

Changed it to green and light blue...
Also added the stat of some of the hills in the far left but I'm not 100% sold on my drawing ability there...

Greenock-Fantasy-Map-Resized3.jpg

[markem]

Have you thought about trying the dark orange but light colored sea? I would think that would give the sea a neon-ish look. Might be a bit much but you can always darken the sea down again. Actually, all of the maps look great so far. :-)

[Lyre]

I am by no means an expert myself, but looking at it, I was wondering about the mountains/ hills, specifically, the topmost two. They seem slightly disconnected to me, especially the one slightly to the right. I don't know whether or not you'd like how it came out or if this is even necessarily a good idea, but it would be a bit more realistic to have some kind of mountain/ hills between them and the others. Not necessarily big ones. But, as I said, it's a matter of taste and artistic liscence and all. Plus it's a nit-picky little detail.

Also, maybe try something a bit darker and with a tad more green for the ocean? Maybe seperate the inland bodies of water if you want them more blue, if you can.

Oh, and I forgot to say that it looks good so far. I like it.

[Chick]

You have a good start. Experimenting with colors and textures is good, keep playing with them until something grabs you