Continent WIP

[Ascension]

Mtn and desert labels look good.

[rdanhenry]

Looks good to me. Although if you any doubts about labels obscuring features, the easy answer to that is to have two final copies of your map: one labeled, one not labeled. Just be sure to keep all the labeling on separate layers from the map and it is just a matter of turning off the label layers. So you have all the labels you need, but if you want to see every detail, look at the label-free map.

[Steel General]

I found the mountain labels a little hard to make out, but not overly so. Otherwise the size, font, etc. looks good.

[Gidde]

Thanks for the feedback on those mountain labels, guys. I made them a little more visible in this version, plus I redid the city icons and labels and put some more terrain/region labels in.

[Scott Livingston]

Very nice to look at. I like the embossed labels, the fonts, and the city icons. Not sure how I feel about the differently colored districts. How relevant are they, particularly if it is the church that holds the real power? If you feel that it is important to show the districts, maybe the colors should be subtler, or there should be fewer of them.

[Gandwarf]

Those city icons look great.

[Gidde]

Thanks, Scott & Gandwarf

@Scott: The districts are still relevant, as the church hierarchy is set up to rule them as districts, but I think you were right on making them a little fainter, so I did in this version.

I think this is just about finished. Added sea labels, more cities, compass rose, scalebar and border.

[basil4j]

I really like this I'm trying to get a similar look for my first world so would be interested to know how you made the texture of the grass/trees/deserts look like they look and how loosely (or not so) you followed Ascensions style?

I've read this thread the whole way through Good work

[Gidde]

Thanks, basil

I used the gimp translation I made of Ascension's atlas style tutorial (since his is in Photoshop). Then I tinkered a bit here and there .... for instance, I added a layer of dark brown over the desert where the mountains were so that they popped a little better. If you follow the gimp version of the tutorial, though, you should come pretty close.

[basil4j]

Hi Gidde,

I use PS so I guess I need to stick to the original

I can get something close to the effect on the land thanks to Ascension's tutorial, but how do you do your trees?

Thanks for the tip about the mountains