The Continent of Aldora (First Map)

[jslaw06]

Hi all,

I've been looking through the forums for a while now and learning from the many tutorials, and have finally put together a map I feel like posting here.

So welcome to the continent of Aldora. This has been put together for a D&D group I'm DM for. We started with the D&D Lost Mines of Phandelver module, hence the town of Phandalin on the map. The history of the cities and regions on the map is currently unknown and will likely develop one step ahead of my band of adventurers. Enjoy!

Aldora_JL2016.png

The map was created in GIMP.
I used brushes created by Daphne Arcadius (http://starraven.deviantart.com/) found at the links below.
http://starraven.deviantart.com/art/...shes-198264358
http://starraven.deviantart.com/art/...rush-153063338

[- JO -]

Is this your first map ? What a great work !!!!
I'm really impressed !
Really nice atmosphere, really coherent in your choices (color, fonts, all...)
Bravo !!!

[Neyjour]

Welcome to the Guild!

Wow... ditto what JO said, this is really impressive, especially for your first map! Definitely deserves some rep!

Love your colours, labeling, water texture, rhumb lines, coastal water lines. It all just comes together so nicely.

If I had to be nit-picky, the only crit I would offer is that the mountains (and some of the trees) could possibly be upped a tiny bit in their opacity, so they're a little more... defined? Prominent? Can't really think of the proper word... LOL! But I hope you get what I mean. They seem to fade into the terrain texture a bit too much, if that makes more sense.

Really looking forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

[Josiah VE]

Welcome to the guild!

I echo what everyone else said, this is amazing! Excellent use of the Sketchy Cartography brushes. I have to say, this is now one of my favorite maps using them. It has an overall great atmosphere, I just keep coming back to look at it. Great job with cities, labeling, rhumb lines, border, compass rose, texture... Overall a beautiful map.
The Hadri Desert doesn't look too desert-y, and it's right below frozen land, is there an explanation for that? Except for what Neyjour said about the terrain blending in a bit I can't think of anything that needs work. You're inspiring me!
What font is that?

[jslaw06]

Wow! Thanks for all the feedback.

Neyjor, I know what you mean. I'll probably look to do a few more maps in a similar style so I'll work on making those features a bit more prominent.

Josiah, I didn't really think to much regarding the climate for this map so don't really have an answer about the Hadri Desert. I guess we'll see what its like and an explanation when the party arrives there. The main font I used was Centaur and Californian FB for the title.

[inuzupunupi]

Noooo... This is not a first map...
If you're not lying, then, well, you're going to be pretty damn impressive a few maps in.

[KutthroatKing]

The ILSE of Grace or the ISLE of Grace? Just checkin'...
Tres cool map!

[jslaw06]

The ILSE of Grace or the ISLE of Grace? Just checkin'...
Tres cool map!

Argh! I knew ther would be a typo somewhere. Thanks for picking it up. Funny thing is one of the people I play D&D with is actually called Ilse! Maybe I'll leave it and see if she picks it up.

[FrancescaBaerald]

Great work! I especially like the texture