WIP: The Exarchate of Monckton

[Barliman]

Hi all,

I'm one of the new kids here (introduced myself on this thread), and it was suggested this would be the best place to post my first effort at mapmaking for critiques and suggestions. So, here goes...

Below is a JPG of the "Exarchate of Monckton," a small detached province of a faraway kingdom that's fallen into decline. It measures 100 miles x 80 miles, and was made with CC3+ using their standard overland symbols.

Monckton 640x480.jpg

This was meant to be a "worksheet" on which I could practice CC+ without worrying about messing up, but it's kind of grown on me. All comments are welcome, but I'd especially appreciate suggestions as to how to improve it; I plan to do a "version 2."

Oh, since the JPG isn't so good, I've also attached a PDF of the map, which I think shows it better.

thanks in advance!

[snodsy]

Nice Job Barliman; Maybe some variation in the land and mountains, so they aren't all the same. The outer white glow a little much, may less outer glow or some transparency on the glow to make it more subtle. Don't letterspace Beoney as lower case letters - either all caps or no letter spacing. The squiggly lines in the water for waves, doesn't really work yet. If that is a scale on the lower right, maybe combine it with the compass rose and place this information in the same area. Good start and welcome to the guild.

[Chick]

Very nice, Barliman Have some rep for posting your first map!

One thing you might want to consider ... having the town icons bigger than the hills and mountains looks a little strange. Try to keep the scale of the map elements as consistent as you can

I like your colors and if you search out a few of the many tutorials around here, you'll be making topnotch maps very quickly

[Jayharchitect]

All of the elements are fun and interesting. I echo what the others have said... avoid the monotony in the mountains with a little variation, adjust the scale of the town icons... and ditch the white glow of the text! (For some reason your map makes me feel like a kid full of wonder, and I like that!)

[Chick]

There is a thread here that will give you a lot of ideas about making your maps look like maps of real places.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=30156

(mainly read the first post where the list is, the rest is general discussion)

[Barliman]

Hi folks,

Sorry for the late reply; work suddenly turned real hectic. How dare they interfere with my mapping!

Anyway, thanks for the compliments and suggestions (and rep). All are appreciated.

Regarding the scale of the towns, I think that's a case of me thinking I knew better than the program. CC3+ scales the symbols to be (IIRC) 1/1000th of the longest dimension. The map is 100x80 miles, so the program set the symbols to .1. I thought that looked odd on my screen, so changed the setting to .12. But, when I look at the PDF, I can see the problem. I can't find a way to globally change the symbols' scale, so I may have to replace them one-by-one. Call it a "learning experience."

Regarding the glow for the text labels, it struck me as rather strong, too. Playing with its strength didn't seem to work (the labels in the mountains and forests grew hard to see when the glow was toned down), but maybe a transparency would work. Thanks for the suggestion!

(For some reason your map makes me feel like a kid full of wonder, and I like that!)

#winning!

Thanks again, folks.