Reply With Quote60 metres wide is a pretty small river in my humble opinion.Originally Posted by Lukc
Thanks for the kind wordsI'll get back to my regular schedule next week, after my holidays
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60 metres wide is a pretty small river in my humble opinion.
Depends on where it is. Since it's at about 1500 feet it's likely far from the sea with a relatively small drainage basin. At that elevation 60 metres wide is pretty big. That easily gives you a flow of around 100 to 200 m3/s when not in flood. For example, the Rhine at Düsseldorf is about 600 feet (180m) wide, while at the Rhine Falls it's about 400 feet (120 metres) wide, and it's one of the largest rivers in Western Europe. At Düsseldorf it has a mean flow of about 1500 m3/s - which is huge.
Sure, it's not the Amazon - but then, not many rivers are!
Beruak2-03-01.png
After a bit more work tonight, the town is mostly done. Some stuff is added, a little regional map is added. Now to add borders, trees and ... umm ... oh yeah, a title!
Wow, it's amazing how something like a regional map can add so much! The only thing is that it's the first thing I notice when looking at the map. Maybe a subtler color for the mountains? Otherwise the map is wonderful.
I agree with dangerdog about the colored mountains, they do draw a lot of attention to themselves. I also find it a touch strange that the rivers on the regional map extend beyond the border all the way to the edge. Could just be a matter of taste, but it's not really working for me personally.
Beyond that I really really really like this map. It's very clean, yet well detailed, which has given this city a ton of character. I could look at this map for a good long time (and have) without getting tired of it.
EDIT: The more I look at it the more I realize that I'd be extremely interested in a light tutorial on this style of city mapping.
Last edited by ScotlandTom; 01-31-2012 at 02:46 PM.
Hmmm ... I'll try paling it out later. For now: a bit of heraldry and titlery.
Beruak2-04-01-01.png
Well now the mountains don't matter because the colors of the heraldry take the attention away. Right now it seems as though most of your color weight is on the right side as reds/oranges/yellows tend to be colors the eyes notice first. I wonder if, instead of just using black to highlight important buildings, you made them a dark red or brown to carry over the colors from the heraldry and mountains into the rest of the map. Doing so will help keep the eye exploring the map rather than pulling it to the upper and lower right corners.
Last edited by ScotlandTom; 01-31-2012 at 04:14 PM.
Always something, eh?) I'm going to have to add a scale still. And I'm wondering if I should maybe keep a grid ...
Beruak2-05-01.png
EDIT: Damnit, you're right ScotlandTom. The heraldry is way too big. That's what I get from zooming in to do it, then forgetting about it (also I work with the grid turned on, so that also "busies" up the workspace). I'm going to decrease it's size, desaturate it, change the titling colour to a dark brown so it blends with the border, do the same on the coat of arms borders and kill the red saturation by about 50%, probably drop the K value to 90% as well.
Last edited by Lukc; 01-31-2012 at 06:04 PM.
That latest version is shaping up really nicely. Lightening up the mountains combined with the extra work you did to detail the regional map really did the trick. I also really like the updated border. Changing it to the brown color really frames the map well and helps to keep the eye moving. You're also right on the size of the heraldry, I'd definitely shrink those down a bit. (I usually find it's a good idea to zoom out to like... 12% when I've been working on a project for a while. Helps when judging the overall composition.)
I still think it'd be fun to try adding in a few small spots of a reddish color in your city though, even if you do decrease the saturation levels in your heraldry. Again, it'll help pull the eye around and give the viewer some specific spots to focus on. That's totally your call though. I'm just really curious how it'd look.
