WIP Taevra - Critique

[JonathanCR]

This is really striking - I really like it! Is the Frozen Realm of Ryntr a high plateau? That would explain the frozenness, but it's not obvious from this map style. (It reminds me in that respect of Tolkien's Dorthonion.) Or perhaps it's cold because the mountains cut off the prevailing winds from the west - though while that would lead to colder winters, the summers would be warmer. Also the lake at the bottom left seems to have a river running into and out of it a couple of times on the western side, which looks odd!

[Adenial]

I ended up having a much busier week than I expected, and didn't get to work on my map nearly as much I'd have liked. This update is mostly about the colour, something I always struggle with. I'm not quite happy with where it is at the moment, but I think I'm almost there. Please disregard the messy writing and very goofy looking monsters for the moment.

I'm really happy with the water colour, but can't find the land to match it. I've tried light and dark colours and greens, reds, and yellows. Any input on colour would be really helpful, I'm having a lot of trouble finding what works!

taevrac_adenial.png

I was originally planning to do the monsters in dark red, but I think I'm going to end up giving them more blue and greens as well. The mountains will be completely redrawn so that they are a bit steeper (and possibly smaller so that I can cram a few more in). Oh, and I added forests!

taevrad_adenial.png

I'm not happy with the definition between the land and sea when looking at the full image, but I think it looks okay when zoomed in. I've tried making the inner land line lighter but it doesn't seem to help. I'm also not happy with how the inner land line rounds out the ends of the rivers, you can see in some areas I tried to make them go into points but it just looks silly. I'm not sure if it's a good choice, but I love the pink water around the coves and river mouths.

And the red! I have an obsession with using deep red when I know I shouldn't; I just can't help myself.

Next up is the land texture and figuring out interesting ways to show what the terrain is like in each place. The biggest struggle will probably be the black sand beaches (from past volcanic activity) in Northern Darvany and the small island of the Asher Territory, as well as drawing highlands on the thin islands of Farlia. I've considered adding small landscape drawings either on the area itself or off to the sides like a border, but ideally I'll figure a way to make it feel more cohesive. Hopefully by next week I'll have a real border and scale, a land colour I love, and finished mountains!

I also happened to find my original drawing while cleaning this week! Not a clue why I chose to flip it.

taevrae_adenial.png

Thanks for reading!

[QUOTE=JonathanCR;385922]Is the Frozen Realm of Ryntr a high plateau? That would explain the frozenness, but it's not obvious from this map style. (It reminds me in that respect of Tolkien's Dorthonion.) Or perhaps it's cold because the mountains cut off the prevailing winds from the west - though while that would lead to colder winters, the summers would be warmer./QUOTE]

The mountains were meant to be a barrier that kept the cold in, it's supposed to be a frozen wasteland with permafrost and no trees. I hadn't realized that would make the summers warmer, so maybe that does call for a nice cold plateau. Lore-wise it can't be warm, because there's a sort of time magic leaking into it that causes time pockets and eventually leads to everything being frozen in time - and I guess I just like the metaphor.

[JonathanCR]

From my meagre understanding of climate, I think the mountains would shield the area to the east from winds bringing moderating temperatures from the sea to the west (you can tell the winds are coming from the west because they're dumping all their rain on the western side of the mountains and making all those rivers). So beyond the mountains you'd have warmer summers and colder winters than on the seaward side of the mountains - i.e. a continental climate rather than a temperate oceanic climate. So yes, if you want it to be colder in general a big plateau is probably the way to go.