My very first map
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Congrats on completing your first map! I still remember the feeling myself several years back when I first joined the Guild. OK, in terms of constructive criticism, here goes:
The first thing that stands out to me is the combination of hand drawn elements and fractal-cloud based realistic looking terrain. It's difficult to get these two styles to play nice together and I generally recommend that beginners pick one or the other for any given piece.
Likewise for your hand-drawn elements it looks like you've got a few different styles (using different line-widths and shading) going on to illustrate your hills, forests and possibly political centers (if that's what these are - see comment below). Am I correct in assuming that this is because some of these were borrowed from other artist and then "stamped" into this map, whereas others (the forests perhaps) were hand drawn? If so in the future I'd recommend either finding a symbol set that contains all the elements you plan to use, all in the same style, or just trying your hand at drawing everything yourself. The combination of various styles actually makes things a little less clear to read, and aesthetically speaking a unified style is preferable to its alternative.
Also, I'm not exactly clear on what those black sponge-texture-like areas are supposed to represent. They look vaguely like the outlines of towns and cities but I'm not sure. If this is what you intended you might want to work on making them a bit more clear in the future. Like, for instance, it would make more sense to draw them in a style similar to either how you've done your trees or your hills and mountains.
Finally, try using a font that is simpler and more legible. The fancy script looks nice but is difficult to read at a glance and this detracts from the utility of the map (insofar as the locales on the map are less easy to reference). My 2c.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
Originally Posted by arsheesh
! I will tell you three things: 1) Your rivers could use some work because they look kinda like blue roads right now 2) your mountains are the same color as the rest of your map which isn't good because your map is green so I suggest either doing a style where you don't need to color the mountains (like what I do) or trying to color the mountains. 3) I can see the pixels so I think you should try using higher resolution next time like somewhere around 3000x2000 or higher.
. I will say two things about this: 1) While the rivers could use some fixing, I think you did a good job with the sea; it looks clear and blends well with the shoreline. 2) Although the mountains do not have color, I do still think that they look nice and have potential.
