WIP - Avearia - Looking for feedback

[kacey]

Awesome mountains and I agree with Deadshade on the river. The only thing I didn't notice was that they are fjords and thought are merely rivers (with sort of bad sources). That may be just because I have this picture of fjords that where they happen they're a lot of them and there are a lot of lakes as well (which your map lacks). So maybe doing two or three very small fjords and a few lakes wouldn't hurt, but even without them you're map looks great!

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Thanx, the fjords happened by accident when I attempted to add some river openings that were way too big, I didn't even know what a fjord was until just a few days ago.

I plan on adding rivers, and lakes I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet, I wanted to get the mountains, and cliffs in first before I started working out where I should place the rivers. As per you're suggestion, I've now given some thought into maybe adding more lakes then I had originally planed.

[kacey]

I started adding some shadows, and highlights to my mountains. I'm thinking they're starting to look a little cartoony.

I was wondering if any one could offer up any critiques, thought's, or suggestions???

Avearia WIP mountain shading test.png

[Deadshade]

The mountains are not connected in ranges.
I cut off the top left corner to show how the connections could look like.
It's just a very fast mouse only job with 4 colors whose purpose was to show how the slopes and connections could look like.
So I have overidden at places your linework but kept all mountains as you draw them. That way you can see the difference between the top left part which I left as you did it (unconnected ) and the bottom right part that I connected.
While I was at it I erased the top left fjord and added a river to show how it could connect (a river starts in the mountains and flows towards an ocean)

Range.jpg

[- Max -]

The mountains are not connected in ranges.

It could work like this depending on the style/feel wanted on the map. Many antique maps from 15-17th century depicts mountains ranges with a bunch of individual mountains next to each other and it has its own charm

[Barek333]

I agree with Max. To me this looks really nice and could work really well depending on the other map elements

[Ilanthar]

Very nice mountains! And you clearly nailed the shadows/lights.

[kacey]

Thanx guy's for all the feedback, I really appreciate it, and it helps me to continue moving forward as I've been tempted to give up many times.

Deadshade... Thank you so much for taking the time to give me such a good example of what you mean. I see what you're getting at, and I do appreciate that style, but I plan on keeping the mountains separate. I do plan on doing more shading, maybe darken up the right side slightly, and like you suggested earlier, adding some hills to blend in into the surrounding land.

I'd like to keep elements of an old world style, tho not exactly. Like Max said, those old maps have a certain charm which is what I'm after. I'm not sure weather I'll paint up some little house, and city icons, or if I'd rather just use a dot with a ring around it for bigger cities, and maybe just a solid dot for smaller towns, but I know I want them to be a red similar to the colour in the title, which by the way I'm going to be reworking. Some have said the text is too hard to read, I will be taking they're advice, and changing it down the road. I wonder if any one has any thoughts on which style of city, and town icons to use?

I'm anxious to get started on the rivers, tho I'm not quite sure how I'll execute them...I'm torn between doing them the same brown colour as the coastal outline, doing them the same as the sea, and giving them a small outline in the coast colour, or just picking a darkish blue colour... What do you guy's think???

[- Max -]

Red city icons will convey an old map feel, but try some options and see what fit the best. For the rivers, I would go for the dark desaturated blue grey of the sea if you don't plan to heavily color terrains.

[kacey]

Red city icons will convey an old map feel, but try some options and see what fit the best. For the rivers, I would go for the dark desaturated blue grey of the sea if you don't plan to heavily color terrains.

Thanx for the suggestion Max. I'll definitely try the dark blue grey for the rivers, and see how it goes. I've never really tried... or succeeded at rivers before, so I was checking out some of you're map's for inspiration, I hope that's ok.

[kacey]

I did some more work on the mountains. I feel there's something wrong with them, I just can't figure out what.

I'm having trouble judging my own work with an unbiased eye. I've been staring at tiny mountains so much I'm seeing them in my sleep, and I just can't figure out what's bugging me about them...

Do I need more? Do I need less? Is it the placement? Should I keep them as is, or scrap them altogether?

I'm going to be adding some more shading, and putting in some hills, and I've started a plan for some rivers, I just haven't shown them here because there really embarrassing just yet.

Avearia more mountains.png