The known lands of Eoberath

[ThomasR]

Finally getting a chance to take a proper look at this map. You've done an outstanding job again, Thomas! The curved hatching looks great, and I love how it comes back in the border, compass and title. And you've done a great job on the labels! I can imagine that being a pain in the @$$, but you've nailed it. The only comment I have is that in the top-left a forest and country label overlap each other..

Thanks a lot Daniel I had to break the labels into two maps and it wasn't even easy. I see what you mean about the overlapping, they're very (too) close.

Great job, Thomas. Like others have said: that hatch pattern is really gorgeous. I do hope you used a custom pattern for that to avoid repetitive strain injury

With regards to the labels: I can see how they would be a nightmare. I'm a HUGE fan of putting off doing them, myself In addition to Matthias' labelling advice, I would like to add that a clearer hierarchy between the different types of labels could also help. I sometimes had some trouble distinguishing between the grey labels for the whole region (higher level), and the back ones for areas within that region (lower level), because they are roughly the same size, but the lower level ones (black) stand out more against the high level ones (grey). I don't have a ready-made solution, I'm afraid, but I would try switching the black/grey colours around, or decrease the size of the sub-regions' labels a bit.

Thanks Brian I only drew one quarter of the border and used it to get some symmetry. All the other hatched parts are unique It was quite a soothing meditation and not that long once you get the hang of it.
I see what you mean about the labels. I tried to reverse the grey scale but oceans popped too much and land labels were hard to read. I'm glad the client plans to ask for color, that'll give me more liberty to make them readable.