Sarenath (wip)

[Kyristan]

Hi, all.

So, this is my first post and the first time I try to create a continent with photoshop.
I tried to follow Ascension great tutorial and came up with this.

I am quite pleased with the map so far but I'm still looking for a way to make the forests more ... well ... more visible.
I know that the scale of my map would normaly not allow real textured forests, but since the map will be used for roleplaying,
it would be great to know where exactly the forests are.

Any advise on this (or how to improve in general) would be very welcome.

Sorry for my english by the way.

[Ascension]

Looks great. If you want to put in some forests the first thing you will have to do is make the whole thing lighter so that forests will stand out. Put a new layer on top of the stack, fill it with white, set the blend mode to soft light, then lower the opacity to 50% (for now). On a new layer, use a spatter brush to brush in forests, apply your favorite layer styles (color, pattern, bevel, glow, etc).

[Steel General]

Looks good so far, curious to see how you end up handling the forests.

[Kyristan]

Thanks a lot

I will try to lighten things up a bit. I am also curious how the forests will look in the end

[LonewandererD]

You should be pleased, this looks really good. Really like the compass and the text, the latter in particular simple yet effective while the former just screams fantasy.

For the forests, Ascension actually has a nice little forest tut that you could use, just used it draw in the forests and then lower the opacity so that they're noticeable without being overpowering.

One thing though, the whirlpool (i"m assumign thats what it is), in the southern oceans is very noticeable. Maybe you could make it blend a little more. Just a suggestion, the decision is up to you of course.

-D-

[Kronski]

This looks really cool! It holds together really well. The one thing that I would change would be the rivers; the smaller ones sort of get lost in the backgrounds

[Kyristan]

Well the whirlpool should actually be a storm
But I am not satisfied with this one either. I will rework it in my next update.
I looked through most of the tutorial in last few days, but I seem to have missed the one about the forests.
Maybe I should learn to use the search function ...

The rivers really get lost somehow, but its just in the .jpg. They are much more visible in the .psd-file.
I will try to export the next map in a higher quality. Maybe that solves the problem.

Thanks for the kind words and suggestions

[Diamond]

Dude, that's beautiful. I especially like the scroll and associated artwork in the top right - that's awesome.

[Kyristan]

Hello again,

so here is the first update.
I tried to follow the suggestion from Ascension and created a lot of forests. I also put in two new volcanos and some canyons.

I would really like to know what you guys think about it. Any critisim or suggestions are still very welcome

The version you can see here is in a lower quality, because the other version is far to big. But you can find a high quality version by following this link:

http://www.dungeonworx.de/sarenath.jpg (about 18 MB!)

[Ramah]

Ooh, I really love those forests. Not sure they would be that visible on a satellite map of this sort but they look wonderful.

Here, have some rep and keep it up.