WIP - Vaehelm

[foremost]

Hey there.

The very first thing I noticed with the map was a good one - your colors work very well with each other. Only maybe the shaded grey in the top left corner stands out. You've also got an interesting coastline going on. So you map is very good for any thumbnail type applications - attention grabbing but not glaring in any way. But that's not to say it's not good once you blow it up bigger.

A couple things I think you could improve on;

1) Can you apply a more gradual fade affect to the brown color beneath the mountains. To make those ranges look larger and more connected with the land as a whole, you could extend the brown color maybe 2-3 times as much with a gradual fade.

2) I'm not a huge fan of the city icons... I don't think they match the labels, but I like the labels, so I would change the icons instead Maybe just to dots or simple symbols to give the map a simple feel. You've already got a lot of detail going on, which is great.

Anyway, great work so far.
FM

[Cybersmily]

Here is an update. I have completed all the mountains (all handdrawn, really didn't like the clone tool).
I also am working on giving the rivers a tapered look. Color of the rivers is still a WIP.
Played around with the fonts and colors (see Free Hold Society in middlish of the map). Probably will give up on doing labeling for now.
Experimented with the upper left section of the map (known as the Field of Ash), still needs a bit of work.
Reworked swamps, still think I need to improve my technique/style of them. Seem to blend in too much with the woods/forests.
Change the rhumb lines to be more accurate (or at least I think I did).
Also added a scale and cartouche as well.
Vaehelm.jpg

As for the city icons, I like the ones I have . Really dislike dot-representatives. I might change the glow on them though.

[hermes418]

the set hills, moutains is awesome!

[Cybersmily]

Thanks. Been on hiatus for a bit, but been working on the rivers with tapering and doing some studies of how to get the desert looking a bit better.