Finished Map (mostly)

[Ascension]

First off, nice job. Second, in regards to the roads, there are many options but here are two: 1) I'd try something like spaced out dots and more variation in the color in order to make the road types more distinct. Also make the dots varying in size as well as amount of space between dots. 2) If you don't want to make the roads into dots then increase the color variation from say a dark brown to a light brown to a yellow while varying the line thickness (thicker for more traveled roads, thinner for less traveled roads). The fonts look fine to me and the colors are pleasing so all-in-all...nice job.

[torstan]

I'd actually stick with Cardinal for the legend as well. If someone goes to the trouble of doing proper calligraphy for the title, they're not going to just scrawl down a legend.

As for the map - I really like it. The mountains are particularly good. I'm not sure about the drop shadow around the rivers. It does make them stand out, but I'm not sure it makes sense visually. Anyway, I'm nitpicking. It's a lovely piece. Have some rep!

[Larb]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it.

The colour palette is a point I've had quite a few people, including my players, bring up. The area has a temperate climate, but I picked the palette because I have something of a thing for "autumnal" colours, however I've found it tends to cause some confusion or just doesn't do it for people, so I plan on making a version of this map with a more traditional palette. I guess the current palette is very marmite-ish in that regard. =P


As for the mountains, I've been looking for a way to make them that isn't too time consuming, that I can remember how I made, and that look good, and the ones on this map are the result so far.

I used three layers, the bottom two layers consist of using a spatterish photoshop brush with a bevel and emboss style layer added, as well as a texture style (one of the default rock textures). The style effects were pasted to all three layers.

The bottom most layer used a grey colour, the same as the mid layer. But the bottom layer has less opacity. The mid layer has full opacity, but I used it mainly for the higher points of the mountain range. The top layer was just a bit of white (with about 80% opacity) brushed on in places for the highest points and to give it a little more depth (original critique I had for it said they looked too grey and barren, so some white might be a good idea).

It's actually pretty quick and easy to do.