A West Marches (still-)Unnamed Map

[XCali]

Thanks, XCali! ^^

Although the original is super inspiring to me, I see the same problems that you pointed; the whitish fade make it seems too confusing in some places, to me. It's good to know that I'm sort of improving some things of a map that was important to me as I was growing up!

The land outline on my map was a bit weird, and I couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. Thanks for pointing the color! I completely forgot about that!

Anyway, here is the current version of it.

### Latest WIP ###


I'm still not certain with some colors and the ocean texture, but overall I'm quite happy with the progress.

Pleasure. We are here to help each other.

What I meant with the darkish outline was the dark Ocean outline around the land, but you did fix it.

Though the ocean does seem somewhat patchy at moment. Maybe look at it.

Anyway, I was thinking about you pondering about some colours and started considering what could work on this map and got to experimenting.
So, if you are interested, here is my experiment:
An Experiment.jpeg
I started out with colours closer to what you have, and tried to see what colours would compliment each other around the coast and in the image is what I came out with.
It was simple, the land layer was top in this case and the shallows layer below it and the ocean depth layer below that. And I used a cloudy brush with low opacity with each colour.

Hope this helps. Good luck with the rest.

[Bruno Müller]

Anyway, I was thinking about you pondering about some colours and started considering what could work on this map and got to experimenting.
So, if you are interested, here is my experiment:
An Experiment.jpeg
I started out with colours closer to what you have, and tried to see what colours would compliment each other around the coast and in the image is what I came out with.
It was simple, the land layer was top in this case and the shallows layer below it and the ocean depth layer below that. And I used a cloudy brush with low opacity with each colour.

Hope this helps. Good luck with the rest.

Wow, XCali, now that's a good feedback! Thanks a lot! <3
I understand what you mean, but I think that the style I'm trying to do is more technical/contemporary, so I'm trying to not put too much realistic details, otherwise I think I'd have to pay way more attention to hills, mountains and swamps, so they would match, if you know what I mean. Even the ocean waters, I didn't initially plan any texture there, so it would be a very plain light blue... I think what I'm aiming at is something that resembles the original Faerûn map, with a pinch of National Geographic, haha.

Anyway, the ocean is really better with texture. And yep, it looks too patchy... I used the Difference Clouds filter to try it out, but I'm going to fix that by actually drawing the ocean bed.

Again, thanks a lot!

[XCali]

Wow, XCali, now that's a good feedback! Thanks a lot! <3
I understand what you mean, but I think that the style I'm trying to do is more technical/contemporary, so I'm trying to not put too much realistic details, otherwise I think I'd have to pay way more attention to hills, mountains and swamps, so they would match, if you know what I mean. Even the ocean waters, I didn't initially plan any texture there, so it would be a very plain light blue... I think what I'm aiming at is something that resembles the original Faerûn map, with a pinch of National Geographic, haha.

Anyway, the ocean is really better with texture. And yep, it looks too patchy... I used the Difference Clouds filter to try it out, but I'm going to fix that by actually drawing the ocean bed.

Again, thanks a lot!

Pleasure!

I hope you got some use out of my feedback. I tried to keep it as simple as possible for your styles purposes. With my Sambria map, I went all in with the ocean because my land was also quite detailed. I do, however, believe the way in the sample will be perfectly fine for what you are trying. Though, I do get what you are saying. It is about keeping the balance. Still, making the ocean slightly more interesting will help the overall map without having to redo the land.

Regardless of your choice, your map is coming along really nicely! My imagination is already doing rounds about it.

[Bruno Müller]

Still, making the ocean slightly more interesting will help the overall map without having to redo the land.

Well, here it goes!

### Latest WIP ###
A-Fenda---Mapa07.png

For now I'll let it rest a bit — the next step is a little more complicated. Since the areas are supposed to be unknown to the players, and the map is going to be hang on the wall of the shop, we'll develop a new script (perhaps a runic one), so people can stop by and try to crack the code as they come to play: we're going to spread some of the letters/text among the adventures, so the characters can decypher the whole map bit by bit.

Here's my first sketch of the script:

runes.png