Post-cataclysm USA

[tainotim]

This looks great Wired! And big. What size are you drawing at?

Cheers,
Tainotim

[Wired]

This is looking great Wired!
The forests look fantastic, especially zoomed out.[/qote]
When zoomed in some of the forests over hills don't look totally natural, but that's okay.

I think I know what you mean, but with the technique I'm using there's no way I could rectify that. To have a more natural feel I believe every single brush stroke would have to stand on its own and be shaded separately. I tried something comparable some time ago with presets, using the clone tool, but it was as imperfect as this approach, if for different reasons.

I can't decide whether I like the softness and bevel on the rivers...

Me neither. Hand-drawn features will probably work better; that, or a combination of hand-drawn details and a light bevel.

I was also curious why it seems like there are only patches of snow on the left side of the hills.

The hills you mean are actually mountains, too. I decided to go with two categories of mountains for this map, round-top ones and sharp-edged (for the lack of a better designation), as the Appalachians are as high as the Alps in some regards, but the peaks are far less jagged. As the shadows on the map fall towards the west, snow on the round tops would then primarily lay on the "shadow side". Not extremely realistic, I know, but persistent with the snow coverage pattern I used for the rest of the map.

Great work so far, your forests, along with everything else, are awesome.

Thanks!
I'm actually hinking about using the same base map for a more truly post-apocalyptic map lateron. I think you'll like that one even better.

This looks great Wired! And big. What size are you drawing at?

Cheers,
Tainotim

Thank you!
This one's A3 at 300dpi.