Feb/March Lite Mapping Challenge - It's a River!

[Zarylin]

Now, In Living Color!

### LATEST WIP ###
MarchChallenge.jpg

It's not quite watercolor, and it's not quite finished, but it certainly is something anyway! Particularly pleased with how the sand dunes came out, even if I'm not really sure they fit in there in the first place. Ah well. Monday I'll try to finish the coloring process, and start thinking about any borders/captions/etc I might want to add.

[Zarylin]

Wow, so it's amazing what some nice borders/overlays do to a map to really make it feel complete!

### LATEST WIP ###
MarchChallenge.jpg

So the map now has a real purpose, and a bit of a story to tell, all of which is based on my musings from last time. The idea is that the Kingdom of Eikerel started as a single city-state and has steadily grown in size and power over the last century or so, as seen on the map. The original settlements are marked in black, and then as the years add more towns and settlements being founded, it turns into a fairly sizeable kingdom, that has it's expansion shaped and facilitated largely by the river and lake.

I'm really very happy with the border and the inset, as they really bring it to life and give it some legitimacy. The roads were kind of thrown on there, and I am considering going back and trying to tidy them up, but we'll see how time goes this week. Finally, I've left the individual settlements and locations un-named for now. Do people think that it is really missing city names, or does the overall idea work without them?

The other question I wanted feedback on is the use of colored icons for the different stages of settling. I think that it shows what I wanted to show fairly nicely, but I could see it either being confused as different nations, or else perhaps just being deemed as too loud/busy. I wasn't able to think of any better ways to communicate the nation's growth, so any thoughts for or against it are more than welcome.


(PS, I'm gonna try to update the name of the thread to reflect the newly named region)

[Counlin]

Oooh, cool map, did you draw the mountains individually yourself? Or used some premade brush?

I like the colour choice, and more than that, the way you painted the map, specially the sandy area. Very cool!

[arsheesh]

Looking nice so far Zarylin.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[lostatsea]

Not really fond of the very jagged river banks ; at this scale those jagged edges would be enormous in actual size. That being said besides that it is an excellent entry. So have some REP and good luck on the contest !