My first map, looking for reviews
Hello! I have began this cartographer life a little time ago (1 month) for my project, I'm working in those maps from that time.
Initially I have made this map:
Mootmore.jpg
I like the final result but I feel it's not.... Interesting.
Then I have made this in this week:
Mootmore map.jpg
I really like the second one, but I'm looking for reviews from people with much more experience than me, because praise from amateurs on facebook or deviantart is easy to get, and no one get better with praises.
Welcome to the Guild Gradash and congrats on finishing your first and second maps! OK since you have requested a critique here is a little constructive feedback:
First Map:
I like those icons. Linework on the trees and hills isn't bad, but could be improved (it looks ever so slightly blurry and the lines could be tapered more). Colors are good, overall, but that black mass along the Oxnard is a bit out of place. Labels are fun; it's on interesting font choice but it looks good with the icons. My biggest nitpick would be that the bevel/emboss along the perimeter of the land seems out of place on an otherwise hand-drawn piece.
Second Map:
Nice work on the elevation; it looks more or less natural to me. You have some major issues with those rivers though. You may wish to check out this thread before starting another map so as to avoid these problems on any new projects. Also, I think the rivers would look nicer if they tapered a bit more. Labels look very nice. The grid is OK, but I think it is just a tad too thick (and perhaps too dark); it distracts a little from the image.
Hope that helped, and happy mapping.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
Thanks so much for the feeback @arsheesh !!!!
Well I'll try explain a bit about the first map:
The black area was made because is to remove focus from Oxnard, Ajucort and Rard, the main objective from that map is show just Mootmore Ducky, and about the bevel. Is the borders from Mootmore. But looks like noth don't work as expected hahahahah
About second one:
Thanks so much about the link, I'll study it!!!
About the grids, It intentional because I needed it to convert do scale of my project, but I'll remade it to a more coherent version.
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Thanks so much for the feedback @waldronate !!!
I'll take notes from all those marks and fix the mistakes. This feedback helps a lot! Looks like my worse problem now is the rivers. I need to study more
Version 2 taking the notes.
I try to make every river came from mountains or height lands, solve the river connections and reduce the number of small rivers focusing only in maintain rivers that cross locations.
Mootmore map.jpg
What do you think?
The coloration of both maps is well done. The artistic (first) one is reasonable, but I'll leave it to the artists to offer more in-depth discussion of technique on that one. I feel a bit more qualified to comment on the second one.
The thread that arsheesh pointed out is good reading. There are a few points from that thread that are important for this map (I marked some of them on the attachment along with presumed river flow direction):
a) water flows downhill,
b) rivers tend to join at an acute angle as they flow downstream,
c) rivers tend to be connected (to other rivers, not to themselves),
d) rivers generally don't connect more than once to the same body of water.
Mootmore-map.jpg
There are exceptions to all of these suggestions, but they are the most common behaviors that you'll encounter here on Earth. One minor point that bothers me is the scale of the map. Some features are suggestive of a larger area than you have here (I would not normally expect to find things marked "steppes" that are only a few kilometers in each direction.
That map looks much cleaner. There are still a few places where waterways go uphill (e.g. the stream by Twin's Inn that heads downhill towards the coast and then turns away from the coast to head back uphill on its way to Harvester), but it's looking much better. There is also an odd split in a river in Old Timberlands that wanders around and joins with other rivers (this waterway also wanders uphill at times). A canal might have this behavior, but a natural waterway wouldn't. It's not geologically stable for a waterway to split; very quickly (usually on the order of decades) one branch will capture all of the flow. The one place where you are likely encounter splits (where a waterway encounters a very flat area that will cause it to drop its sediment - e.g. a delta) are generally very unstable and the individual splits are constantly wandering back and forth across their area.
I understand that the story behind the map may dictate water connections between certain areas. If that's true in these cases, some hidden force that not critical to the story may be continuously moving things along (e.g. a family of water sprites likes the taste of water from certain highlands or have befriended some lowland folk and are keeping the waterways moving for their benefit). An odd geological element accompanied by a quick explanation can result in potential story opportunities in the future (in the example above, unintended consequences of mining in highlands far away can cause the water sprites to be sickened or move away, which causes silting in the waterway, which causes farms in the character's hometown to begin drying up as the water goes away, leading to an adventure to try to restore the water - environmental activism and XP all in one!)
thnaks so much for the feedback @waldronate!!!
About the big rivers they are plot important, Mootmore can be accessed just by two points, in north by Redriver Fort or Fort Mattapan in south. The other way to leave is by the forest of Quagmire, but in lore is know as "The unseen forest, who enters on it, never came back."
The fixed version using your notes! Now I think I haved fixed all Dungeons and Dragons Rivers with human frogs. Thank so much!!!
Mootmore map.jpg
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