Western United States

[Ilanthar]

I agree with foremost about the shadows, but I'm sure you're gonna sort this out very well. Very nice project.

[snodsy]

Started the shadowing & light side of the mountains, did a little more on the Rockies to see all how the Mountains might come out with snow capped - Glacier and the Seattle Mountains will have snow caps as well. Added more river branching, the River Text are placeholders now, may do them in illustrators, so much easier there. Plenty left to do.WesternUSA_06.jpg

[Diamond]

Looking fantastic, snodsy. Keep it up.

Question about the southern border of California: is that 'crookedness' intentional, an artifact of the projection, or is it just off? Looks like it tilts left too much to me.

[snodsy]

Diamond, thanks for the comment. The California coast was the same as the rest of the projection, I do see what you mean, maybe extend the coastline from San Diego down and make it wider? or thin out the Gulf? I think the islands are probably too big also.

Here's the latest with forests added and some other elements I've worked on (devils tower, mt rushmore). Maybe by the time I do the last forest, I'll finally get it down, oh well, it's a learning opportunity. I do like the what the forest adds to the overall color of the map, it adds some richness to it -

This map has so much that I've lots of mountains to practice with! WesternUSA_07.jpg

[Ilanthar]

It's looking good Snodsy. I would just make a smoother transition of the shadowing between the mountain base and the plains/plateaus (a gradiant maybe?).

[snodsy]

Thanks Ilanthar, I've thought about the smug tool as well, which I tried but wasn't happy with it yet, I'll probably wait until I get all the elements in, then start fine tuning those types of details, thanks for the idea though I definitely think it need that.

[foremost]

Be careful with the labels overlapping... as is the case with North Cascades and Seattle. Also, do you mean Olympic National Park or Olympia? You put just "Olympic".

[snodsy]

Here's an update with most of the line work done, now transitions and details. Still playing with the labels. Lots of internal forest lines/shadows still to do. About 26hrs so far. WesternUSA_12.jpg

[Chashio]

That's looking very nice snodsy... coming together well. When you finish up the labels, Mount Rainier has another i in it.

[J.Edward]

This is indeed looking very fine snodsy.
You might want to fix that outer coast line [dark edge] up by the Salish Sea. Not sure if that is intentional.
Very nice work sir.