Reply With QuoteIt's just a beautiful map. That's what I think. Just positively beautiful.
It is a very good example, I feel, of a map that utilizes color well. The tones and shades and hues are subdued. Nothing hurts my eye, as I sit and just stare at it. This makes the map all the more inviting.
The oceans/seas are divine. Glorious, they are, with the color serving as the foundation of a nice look, but with the text and lines all working in unison to make the water aspect of this map a stunning masterpiece.
The border around the map looks nice, and goes well with the map. I wouldn't call it the icing on the cake, as it doesn't rise to quite that level. However, it is a nice touch, just the same, and compliments the rest of the map nicely.
The land masses are adorned with beautiful white mountains. The mountain ranges, themselves, I wouldn't award a prize for, but that said, the individual mountains really inject the map with life. Plus, the forests accent the map nicely, though most of the forested areas are too small for my taste buds, with the exception of the forest in The Silent Land in the southwest quadrant of the map. I love mountains, as they are often the shining glory of many a map, but it strikes me that the expanses of forests should usually exceed the space taken up by mountains.
The font choices in use on this map bless the one browsing this map with a nice selection of variety and size. If this aspect of the map doesn't rise to perfection, then it certainly doesn't lie far from it.
The compass rose is splendid, and a superb choice for this map. The colors of it make it stand out from the map a bit, drawing the human eye to this artistic centerpiece.
The red circles/orbs used to denote population cities are two thumbs up and right on for this map. Just lovely. It's a good example of how small touches really make a map shine. I am not as big a fan of those green squares. No doubt they distinguish certain population centers from others, perhaps for nationality reasons, but they are one of the very few things about this map that I wouldn't praise.
The location names are colorful, and this always is helpful to increasing visual interest of a map. The names can spark the imagination of the viewer. Tiger Bay, The Swordless Coast, and some place named Cestoral. What about those Glass Mountains or The Lisan Fringe? Or, if you wish, the Lord's Sword or the River of Feathers. That's what I'm talking about - those unique places that just stand out as the human eye darts and dances around the map, just seeing what all is there.
In the valley and plains areas of the map, it's not one solid mass of color. That imbues the map with texture, something the human eye yearns for when viewing what is supposed to be the soil of the Earth (or whatever planet that is being depicted).
And what about the edging of the coastlines? Just beautiful. It's nice and wide and is blessed with a color that compliments the map, rather than distracting from it. The overall impact, from a visual perspective, is that the overall map becomes a thing that is greater than the sum of its individual parts.
The map key isn't particularly impressive, but fortunately, it doesn't distract from the aesthetics of the map. It serves its function, and that's all that I will say about that. Not spectacular, nor even particularly imaginative, but simultaneously, it's not bad. The title of the map that resides above the map key, however, oh that looks very nice. Very nice, indeed! The lettering size, with the emphasis on Erenarc, is just a perfect fit. Succulent, I would even say. And the cursive calligraphy of the cartographic credits in small lettering is subtle, yet lovely. It's up out of the way, not a white elephant serving primarily to distract or to hurt the human eye as a visual thorn might, serving its purpose and doing its duty to the map silently and not-quite-invisibly.
Those two parchments blended into the map on the left hand side are nice touches, also. Visual stimuli, eye candy, but of the subdued variety.
It's better than the majority of maps that I see. Oh, and my eye just notices that Bay of Song. Oh, very nice little touch, there. Excellent!
All in all, it's the kind of map that makes the viewer wonder what other glorious gems reside in this cartographer's map collection or portfolio.
Superb! Job very well done.
I haven't posted in months, i guess i should get on that ASAP.
