(WIP) Acur Coasts... (part 2)

[Pixie]

Even before I finished part 1, this second one was already getting started..

It's far from finished, and it will surely take a while as there is tons of labeling to do, let alone accurate linework, but I wanted to share an early version and get any possible feedback.

So, here it is! Say it all, fellow cartographers, I can take harsh critique almost as well as I take the praise

Acur_CentralWest_Coast_2016.jpg

[snodsy]

Really love these the color palette is quite nice. Only comment I think the leading on the main headers are a little wide, but that's just me. The other text treatment is really nice. Great start

[Pixie]

Thank you snodsy. I am not so sure about the lead in Shahamurgh and Urpuenda either. I think I will fiddle with it frequently as the canvas fills with the smaller labels. The problem, though, is that those countries are huge from East to West and I am struggling with that...

[Tiluchi]

As usual this looks great! I do notice that some of the borders don't totally meet up- such as Urpuenda and Jianan by the river- but I'm sure you still have work to do with the linework anyway. But otherwise this is fantastic.

[Straf]

Another promising map Pixie I'm excited.

[Pixie]

A little more time on this and I managed to draw roads in Jianan and Senan, as well as add some small cities and a few labels. Labeling has been easy so for since I've followed existing maps, respecting the canon established in these maps: Kane 1720, Republic of Shahamurgh, The Middle Abi.

Still a long way to go, but since this is a WIP thread, it makes sense to post the update. So here it is.
Acur_CentralWest_Coast_2016_v2.jpg

Tiluchi, the current border is a draft, so thank your for your comment, but it is only a temporary scribble.
I am also struggling with an important decision - to break up Shahamurgh and/or Urpuenda into smaller states - they are huge now and they shouldn't be important players in geopolitics. The way the continent topography and climatology worked out, they ended up natural population centers.

[randigpanzrall]

Hi pixie, looks definitively great to me. I really like the coastal shape because it looks quiet natural and not too quirly or too detailed for this scale

[Pixie]

I had some more time for linework and name placing... The map is becoming "truly" inhabited...
I also moved the legend box to a different location to allow breathing space in the coast - since this is a map from a series about the coasts of the continent - I would like your opinion on the change, if you have any.

Acur_CentralWest_Coast_2016_v3.jpg

I guess I should write a little bit about the climates/history/culture of this region. It is quite a history filled region, with plenty of ancient civs / empires. Currently climate/biomes range from Savannah in the coastal lowlands and in the southern parts of the Abi River valley, to the hot deserts of the Illyd River basin (northwest corner of the map) and the cold(ish) desert of Amarash, particularily cold in the highlands, like the Serran Mountains.
This makes the large rivers of this area very important for agriculture and to support large populations. Historically, some of the earliest forms of centralized state originated in the Zunim Mounts (not so populated these days, but there have been climatic changes in the past 5000 years) and in the valley of the river Lamua. These created numerous spin offs and quite a decent number of places in this region keep their own ruins of former imperial capitals.
More recently the western side of this map was heavily influenced by events to the West (the expansions and collapses of the Kane Empires) while the eastern side was ravaged by early modern age wars which resulted in the establishment of three very large states, Shahamurgh, Urpuenda and Zelandyi, with tremendous potential but very much behind in terms of industrialization and infrastructure/education. Meaning that all countries on this part of the continent have been in the periphery of development and wealth-accumulation.

As always, comment and critique are welcome!!

[kacey]

I just love this style you've been working on, it looks very professional, like it came right out of a modern atlas. I also like that you added some history for us to peruse. This must be a really big project, how many maps will be in the series? And will you have a full map of the entire continent as well? Would be interesting to see. I would love to have the dedication to create a project like this, and bind it all into a book. The one thing that bugs me a bit is the relief is a tad fuzzy, but I don't know how big you're original file is, so maybe it's just a result of down sizing.

[Pixie]

Thanks for the compliments, kacey. Unfortunately, the original relief map is a whole-world map of around 4600x2300 px and that is smaller in size and has a poorer definition than this one, so this is really as good as I can make it. Still, I think this last version suffered from reducing it to forum-friendly-sized. It does look a little better on my computer.
I have been drafting some of the other maps of the series - it could come down to eight maps, but a few would cover areas that aren't still fully "drawn" in the main-world-sized-map, so they may never see daylight.. Yet, I think I can get 3 or 4 down to "paper".

Thanks for the comments, reputation and encouragement, fellows!