Ralia, Dawn of Conflict WIP

[AlamoFiteCat]

So I had this map made for a pathfinder campaign a few years ago but it was sketched on paper.
Basically it's one of the three continents on a world called Arelyon which I've used in two totally different campaigns
and now, after being heavily inspired so many great maps here I decided to transfer my baby to the digital form via scan.
After that I used only the coastline and deleted everything else.
I did some generalization and decided not to include some of the smaller towns and villages as well as a river or two.
I used tons of resources for the icons, mostly stuff I found here like the mountain sets, the towns some of which I edited but I'll have to throw a big thank you to all of the sources.
I used an azimuthal projection grid but the size allowed me to sort-of create an illusion that it's actually a conical projection.
I'm probably going to rework the title, add a border and a scale ruler so it's a work in progress but all in-all, it's a finished map.
I also couldn't upload it on the website because of the size so I used tinypic instead.
Software used: Photoshop/Hand drawn coastline

test1.png

[ladiestorm]

I love the colors and textures of this map. And the sea monster artwork is beautiful.

If I had one critique, it would be this.... the coastline is a little too smooth, and also a little too blunt. It sort of cuts into the realism of the map... Other than that, I think it's absolutely lovely. I REALLY like the seeming coral reefs around the edges... it's a fantastic touch!

[AlamoFiteCat]

Thanks for the heads up and the comments, especially the heads up ^_^
I worked around the textures a lot using different hues and lots of grunge brushes mostly trying to blend in the mountains as best as I could.
Yep, that coastline really lacks detail I wanted to add some splinter islands here and there but got too involved and completely forgot

[snodsy]

This is a really great job of combining various elements into a cohesive piece, the texture in the ocean and the treatment of the land mass is really well done. Love the sea monsters.

I think the scale of the continent to the globe is pretty large compared to the number of elements on the map. There would probably be a whole lot more going on or scale the continent to not be so big?? just a thought.

I agree the coastline is an issue, my initial thought was--- the land mass looked like it was under a MASK.

Part of the issue is what you've and ladiestorm have discussed about the coastline being too smooth - agree.

Maybe the three evenly spaced waves could be spaced close at shoreline then each wave is spaced further away for a softer transition? Possibly an inner glow or paint more variation on the coastlines.

Really nice job.

[AlamoFiteCat]

Thanks for the comments and insight
I never thought about using inner glow to soften the transition of the coastlines. I'll look into that. Thanks.
The number of elements on the map is intentional since I wanted to make the map seem cleaner because I was afraid I would clog it down too much since I don't have much experience in map generalization. The paper version of the map has a lot more stuff mostly towns and villages, all of them smaller than the ones shown on the map. I also left out 1-2 rivers and the lakes.
My plan was to consecutively map out different regions of the entire continent on large scale maps.
I'll take all this into consideration on my next piece, thanks. ^_^

[WghstrfG]

Nice colors and details, really cohesive map.

[davidhopkins]

This is great! I love how each city is distinctive. Very clever.