Ersïa

[Daelin]

...yes, it come from shaded relief maps of Earth... or Mars.

May I ask, where did you find those shaded reliefs? Is it from an online resource?

[SteffenBrand]

Yes, I love it! I think it is much clearer than before, especially with the relief-style you can almost feel the land rise above the surface!

May I ask, where did you find those shaded reliefs? Is it from an online resource?

I wonder that, too. They are really lovely! =)

[Ilanthar]

By Daelin
May I ask, where did you find those shaded reliefs? Is it from an online resource?

Sure . For Mars, it's an oldie from USGS/Nasa (one or the other... or both). For Earth, it come from naturalearthdata.com.

By Steffen Brand
Yes, I love it! I think it is much clearer than before, especially with the relief-style you can almost feel the land rise above the surface!

Glad you like it and good to know ! And now, the sea seems a bit flat, though. I'll try to improve it.

[ThomasR]

I like the new version, the relief are more focused. The colors are great too and thanks for the NASA source

[Ilanthar]

By Thomrey
I like the new version, the relief are more focused. The colors are great too and thanks for the NASA source

Thanks, and you're welcome .

I tried a quick thing to make the seas more "alive" and less flat. Thoughts?
Ersïa.jpg
I think I'm gonna do some tests about rivers/borders/labels before painting the other continents.

[mat_r]

Great shapes, colors are looking good... all in all an exciting project. I will keep an eye on this.
I have to agree with the others, those reliefs are fantastic!

[Ilanthar]

Thanks a lot Mat_r !

After more thoughts, I won't put the main rivers. I did a test about capitals and borders. Conventional, but I think it works...
Border capital test.jpg
I don't know what to do about labels. Should I use the fictional script? A transcription in latin (close to phonetic, but not completely phonetic)? In english (partly approximate then)? Mixed with english?
Alphabet or.jpg or Alphabet latin.jpg
English.jpg or Mixed.jpg
What do you think/prefer? It's pretty clear that I won't have the place to put both options for countries...

[Voolf]

I would choose either full latin or full english, but its my subjective opinion.

[DanielHasenbos]

I think a fictional script would really be cool with this map, though it will be hard for us to really make sense of it I guess. But yeah, I would certainly find it interesting ;P

-Dan

[Daelin]

Sure . For Mars, it's an oldie from USGS/Nasa (one or the other... or both). For Earth, it come from naturalearthdata.com.

Thanks! I like natural earthdata.com. That's a really cool site. Don't know why I haven't found it before. Maps using these resources to follow.

I don't know what to do about labels.

Personally, I don't like cursive fonts. I like clean angular lettering. I also don't like pseudo-fantasy fonts that look like a fictional language, but is really just overtly ornate Latin lettering. That makes it too complicated to read the labels, and takes away the fun of reading the names. But that's just a subjective thing, you might have a totally different preference, and that's cool. Aesthetically, I'm a minimalist, I guess. But I'd say, the actual names, whether you want to name your city "Bluetown" or "Aarkhaalthaarkinaenyotep - Ruined City where the Skull-eater God doth Dwell", that's up to you, and the world that you are building. If you want to use a fictional language, with weird or cool-looking fonts, heck, then go for it. As long as it "fits" with the universe of the map - and the only person who decides that is, well, you.