Lovecraft Country

[ravells]

Here is where I've got to with a new map I'm doing (for my own amusement) of Essex County in Massachusetts which is where it is believed HP Lovecraft set many of his stories. The style is based on a walking map of the Catskills made in the 1920s. I would appreciate any crits as something about it doesn't hang together for me. I think it's the way I've drawn the towns.

cheers

Ravi

[Caenwyr]

Noooo.... No, I see no obvious flaws in the way you've drawn things!

Maybe it's the fact that your towns look flat grey, while they're drawn on top of a brownish paper texture? I think if you lower the opacity of the layer a bit, or set it to multiply, that might help give them the impression they're IN the map as opposed to being drawn on top of it. You could try doing the same with the rest of the layers as well. Maybe arrange them all in one folder to prevent any unwanted details from popping up, and then turning setting the folder to multiply. That way your linework, text etc will also appear as if it has been drawn with actual ink on actual paper .

But apart from that, this little map looks great! Well done, Ravells!

[arsheesh]

Ooh, I like it! Great job so far.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[igoroh]

It looks very good! And Caenwyr is right, using a darker brown might be better, but don't change the style. It looks much better than just small dots.

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[snodsy]

Love the Railroad text, handled nicely and stands out just enough as do the roads and the counties, really nice work overall.

River text --maybe a little letter spacing to follow the curve of the river better.
scale text -- "4 miles" is little large. maybe put it underneath and add a compass rose right above.

I go to Marblehead every other year, so I know the area well, Gloucester and Rockport are beautiful as well.

Nice job!

[Ilanthar]

Great map Ravells! I love it : the railroads are great and everything is saying "begining of the 20th century". I think you could probably improve the cities, indeed. I would suggest a hatched effect area and/or a blending effect and/or a change of color more close to the paper. Just suggestions.

[ravells]

Thanks for all the kind and very helpful comments and suggestions, everyone. I'll see what I can do to improve the map.

Thanks again!

Ravs

[Lingon]

Looks great, beautiful layout, and Caenwyr's suggestions are spot on what I was thinking.

[ravells]

Thanks for all of the suggestions, most of which I have put into effect (actually I think all of them). I just couldn't get the hatched effect to work (thanks Ilanthar for the suggestion - definitely worth a try).

- Snodsy (or anyone else who is familiar with that part of the world and/or familiar with Lovecraft's work - are there any locations (real or fictional) which you would put in? (The points of interest section is not yet finished so it looks a bit alone and wonky)

Cheers

Ravi

[- Max -]

Looks great Ravells! Sad that the hatching
didn't work, I would had suggest that too.