Nonameland - An attempt

[furiousuk]

So, I've made some more progress this morning:

11TopRightMountains.jpg

12MidlandValleyBed.jpg

13MainPeninsula.jpg

14LandFin.jpg

The final shot shows pretty much how the topography (correct word?) of the land will be, there is some touching up of most of the landmasses to do and the water hasn't really been touched yet.

This is my first map so I'm still learning a lot of the process of doing things but I think it's looking pretty good so far.

There are a couple of things I'm unsure about: I'm not sure I'm a massive fan of the river mouths and I'm unsure how to colour the lower right portion of the map. The area is supposed to gently transition into plains, possibly showing a hint of a desert further inland (and to the right).

I'm also still not quite sure on scale either, the widest rivers are roughly 5 pixels across, any ideas how wide that would probably be? (I'm guessing there are quite a number of things to consider here)

[furiousuk]

I've added some texture and depth to the ocean layer:

14SeaDone.jpg

The thing I've learnt whilst doing this is to add far more depth contrast between the different heights, most of the land was done rather tentatively. Hopefully it looks like I have improved as I've gone along, I feel the last areas (bottom-right) are better than the first areas (islands & top) which is encouraging.

I found a spare 10 mins during work to fiddle with the levels (another new skill!) and added a level to the whole thing:

15LevelsApplied.jpg

I thought the sea still looked too garish and worked out how to apply a different level to each of the land and sea:

16MoreLevelsApplied.jpg

I also adjusted the brightness of the ocean as well as reducing the opacity of the land stroke and I think I'm about ready to call this one.

As this is just drawing practise the labelling will be quick and dirty although I'm keen to go through the whole process so any critique is gratefully received.

[ravells]

That's looking top notch! My very minor crit is that if the map is representative of a very large area of land the rivers might be a bit too wide and thus kill the visual effect of the scale, suggested by the forests.

Really lovely work!

[Korba]

I think it looks really good. I'm not sure if the rivers extending into the sea is a deliberate effect (to represent deltas?) or something else. For me they are a little distracting but only really noticeable in the latest higher contrast version.

Korba

[furiousuk]

Thanks for the advice, I've tidied up the river mouths and sorted the brightness of the rivers by reducing the opacity on the eraser and using a soft brush to erase away at the rivers. I found that got more control than just reducing the opacity on the whole layer.

Here's the result with plenty of settlements and routes added:

19AddedTownsAndPaths.jpg

I've also brightened the land a touch. The end has been spotted!

It's my first earnest go at adding map candy so, as always, hints, tips & error-spotting are most welcome!

[Carstairs]

The settlements and routes really add a lot of interest to the map. And I like how the mountains tend to constrain the area and make it cohere without looking artificial. The national borders are hard to see, and my personal preference is against relief on underwater areas, but I think the map is turning out very well. I would have started out with more dramatic detail in the original alpha map but I can see that would have been the wrong choice.

[Akerbeltz]

Looks great, I would agree about the underwater relief. I would prefer it to be a lot subtler.

[furiousuk]

Yes I think I'm tending to agree too, I quite like the affect but it is too strong, especially when compared to the land. I did the underwater last and have improved using the brushes, whereas I was quite timid with the land. I've tried painting more strongly under the mountains to give them more height but I think it has to be done as the map evolves so will definitely be more aggressive with the land for my next project. The land looks too flat in comparison with the underwater areas so I'll have a play and see if I can soften the relief. I was trying to create a nice shelf for the land to sit on to really get them to emerge from the sea but I haven't really achieved it.

I agree with the national borders, I still haven't pinned down the best way of doing it for this semi-realistic style of map. I'm also struggling a little with the labelling as the map is getting awfully busy.

[furiousuk]

So I've had a play with it and changed what I could but I think I have to call this one finished.

21Complete.jpg

The relief on the underwater is more subtle now although I still think the land should be more aggressively raised up. It's incredibly busy but I'm hoping that by reducing opacity smaller settlements it blends in ok. Now that I've posted it I can see at least one settlement that has evaded naming

The title is very obviously hastily added, I'll put more work into one when the actual map involved more thought and planning.

Thanks for all the comments, they really helped to shape my learning!

Hopefully my next piece will be more interesting!

[ravells]

Fantastic work! If that's the quality of your first map, your second is going to be a doozy!