My First Map Using the SADERAN TUTORIAL by Tear

[snodsy]

Using this awesome tutorial by Tear, I tried by 1st photoshop map. I wanted to use a real location with real features to test my abilities, I think sometimes creating a random map doesn't alway push you to figure out the problems that arise when your trying to draw a planned map.

I didn't use all the layers that Tear did, I didn't have ice caps on my mountains and there were no rivers within the island.

The artwork for the map was done in photoshop, I then placed the map in Illustrator for the roads and labels, This allows me more flexibility (plus I've been using Illustrator for twenty years so I'm very comfortable with it.

Comments welcome, 1st map, 1st post, new member, so hopefully this POST works!

Love all the inspiration on this site. Thanks
Ric

[jbgibson]

Welcome to the Guild! You could say you're starting with a bang, mapping Santorini. Well, you might not, but I would stoop to that ...

Nice job. And we appreciate people jumping right in - map in the initial post is worth a starter dollop of rep - then you made it look quite good as well. Bravo.

About all I'd add would be a scale. The contrast between the tan terrain and the white labels is a smidgen low - might come off better in print than on my monitor. Not sure what I'd shift to make those labels more visible. Maybe do all labeling in the dark color and distinguish feature types by regular face/ italic/ small caps instead of by color? The palette is pleasant, for sure.

I look forward to seeing more. What is your mapping goal - supporting writing, or gaming, or just for the fun of it?

[snodsy]

Thanks for the comments jb, I added a scale and also put more contrast in the hills and mountains to pump them up. I will probably try to add a more cliff like feature to help show this feature of santorini. I've added a drop shadow on the text to help separate.

I'm a graphic design and do a lot of placement maps, but trying to expand my map making skills, this is such a great site for inspiration and the tutorials are really helpful. Santorini06-01.jpg