Style test, 18th century/fantasy mix

[Lingon]

Here's a small thingy I've been working on for a couple of days… Not really a project or anything, just trying to come up with a new style, as I'm a bit tired of my usual one. This is obviously a rather messy job, and I tried a bunch of different forests and I'm not really happy with any of them, except maybe the one in the bottom right which is exactly like I've always done them I was aiming for a mix of a 1700's political map and a more colorful fantasy style, which I think I got across decently? I have two versions, the first is the original ink/watercolor painting with PS labels, the second is with altered colors. I like the saturation in the second one better, but maybe it turned out too light… Any thoughts are welcome, especially on the forests
Stiltest3.jpgStiltest3b.jpg

[Eilathen]

Very nice, love it. I think the lighter one is slightly more to my liking. Good landshapes and mountains as well. I want to see more.

[arsheesh]

I think both are lovely! I really like the border. Hope you decide to keep working on this because I'd love to see how it turns out.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Diamond]

I'll echo what the fellas said. Looks great. I really have a soft spot for your stuff; it always hits all the right notes for me. As far as the forests go, I actually like the big one on the top the best; good color variation and appearance. I'm kind of leaning towards the version on the right as far as overall appearance goes.

[Viking]

Looks good Lingon I am partial to the more saturated version myself.

[Schwarzkreuz]

WOW, thats a realy nice start, and already a splendid border. Also the finst are still to computerized from the feel for me, its not matching your fine work.

[Lingon]

Thanks guys, glad you like it! I worked a bit more on the labels to blend them in better, and darkened the base painting (second variant) a little. Maybe I should raise the resolution to get a more natural effect on the text? I have a quite noisy, small, inner glow on it now, but the noise hardly shows up. Not sure if I'll be able to work with a higher resolution in the map I plan to use this style on though, I want to cover quite a large area… But then, I've been wanting to get some more RAM for my laptop for a while now, maybe the time has come
Stiltest3c.jpg

[Ilanthar]

Very nice! I love your border and the curved grid lines (has someone worked on a globe lately? ) Your delta and rivers are also very convincing.
I Just hope the map to be a big one!

[- Max -]

Nice stuff Lingon, keep it up! Can you show more of the map?

[Lingon]

Thanks! If all goes to plan, it'll be my biggest map so far… I just hope it won't be so big that it makes me loose motivation halfway through (that's happened before!) I can't show any more of it though, because this corner is all that I have and it's not part of the real one I'm just testing the style here, I want to be sure it's gonna work before I start.

Regarding the forests, I'm actually leaning towards not showing them at all. Most political maps don't, after all, and the world I'll be mapping is very sparsely populated, so I'd end up covering most of the land in forest if I show it. It might be better to let the yellow-green tone represent all non-cultivated ground, and show the farmlands instead?

Here's a test with doubled resolution, I think the text looks better… I'll probably give it a try at this size, and if my computer faints I'll have to look into the RAM purchase option more seriously. It would be nice to be able to run PS without lag…
Stiltest3d.jpg