First Attempt at Map Making

[Creios]

Here is my first attempt at map making. I'm not sure if I'm finished with it or not at this point. This was more of an experiment to get used to the process.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Wannabehero]

Very good first map Creios, I particularly think you did a good job with your coastlines. The only improvement I think you could make to those same coastlines would be for the lines to not be as sharp. At this image resolution the pixelation is starting to become visible. Possibly a 1 or 2 px gaussian blur effect made to the coastlines would smooth them just slightly so they blend in better with the softer feel of the rest of the map.

Second, the only other suggestion I feel I could make (I'm not much of a regional map-maker myself) is to make sure that icons that represent the same things are similar in size on your map. On the left side the trees are significantly larger than the trees on the right or the deciduous trees to the north and south, which I feel looks out of place. I would suggest settling on an icon size in-between the two and sticking with it for your all of your trees. Also you could try clumping the trees together rather than having them more or less evenly spaced out. I don't know if it will look better to you or not, but it might be something worth trying.

Once again, very good first map. Your parchment texturing is excellent also. Keep it up and thanks for sharing!

[RiftKnight]

I like the colours! Plus the patterns and textures are great too.

Like Wannabehero, I think the coast lines are definitely the biggest strength in this map. Just to add to what he said, the mountains seem a little large compared to everything else. To be fair, obviously, mountains actually CAN be huge, but I just felt they seemed a little out of place. Maybe using a few smaller mountains among the larger ones might help that.

The only other thing I wanted to comment on (though it's really a personal preference) is the use of green and brown terrain beneath the trees and mountains. The change of colour from those to the map parchment, I feel, is a little jarring.

It's a great first go though!

[Lalaithion]

I might add that while coastlines like that are probably possible, but at the scale your mountains imply, there are no such structures on earth; I suggest eliminating some of the smaller lakes, making the largest your ocean and connecting the remaining small lakes to the ocean with rivers.