Fresco of Ausonia

[Mouse]

And it looks even better without the background texture

However you look at it, the more art you pour into a map the more interesting and absorbing it becomes. A project like this one might take several months to complete, but when its done no one else will have anything remotely like it, or even half as beautiful

On long projects I frequently have little bursts of energy where I could quite happily do a string of 18 hour days, except for life's little interruptions, and then short periods (that sometimes become quite long) when I just have to walk away from it and do something else. But if I didn't take those breaks I would simply give up and forget the work once I tired of doing it the very first time

I really like your new avatar by the way - nice and cheerful

[Naima]

Thankyou ... Now I noticed that I am creating different styles for hills, mountains , like hilly mountains, green mountains, blocky rocky mountains and snow mountains, is it good or it makes too much patchwork diversity ? Should I keep one single mountain style?

Also I am now wondering too on the features to add and distribute on the map , from special locations like vOlcano , waterfalls or else ... Where can I get more ideas for features to add on the map?

[Mouse]

Here is the big question - for me at least!

When is a mountain a symbol, and when is it a realistic depiction of the actual land form? The answer is probably scale, with smaller scale maps making more use of more uniform mountain symbols, and larger scale maps showing what the mountains actually look like, and that they are in fact different to one another.

I think the style you have chosen is placing demands on you that you depict the mountains as they are, rather than just plonk thousands of identical symbols down, but that is only my opinion

Its always difficult to know what kind of thing to use to add interest, but if the mountains are all going to be perfectly unique in their own right that should add quite a lot of interest anyway. Contrast between different areas always helps - rugged mountains and extremely flat plains or deserts. How about a limestone cast area, or a coastal mangrove or swamp?

[Naima]

Here is the different mountain style, I am wondering , are those styles compatible , do they fit and match ? What I wantded to do is represent a passage from high snowy mountains to lower rocky mountains and degrading into green covered mountains , do the styles match ? Should I change something?

[Mouse]

I think they are beautiful, and I can't wait to see a larger area

Don't forget that whatever shapes and forms you paint, they will go together quite naturally because they are all painted in the same colour palette by you, in your own personal style.

Keep going, Naima. You don't deserve to be impeded by unnecessary doubts

[Falconius]

It works sort of. To my mind it would work better if the treeline (ie green part) followed a steady line. What I mean is that the green on the short mountains wouldn't be higher than the green on the base of the tall mountains. Note that treelines are not a flat horizontal line, the tree line gets higher as you go away from the coast. To my eye many of the shorter greener mountains appear to be as high as the tall ones.

[Abu Lafia]

Wow, that painterly style looks just gorgeous Naima! The transition you mentioned works very well in my view. Ofc the river/valley between the mountains makes the transition seem a bit more abrupt. Maybe adding a tad more snow to some of the highest eastern peaks (or instead less to some of the lowest western peaks) to smoothen the transition? Looking forward to see this map unfold, really inspiring stuff!

[Naima]

Thankyou ...

Here I was trying to experiment with a possible style for trees and forests, they are just very roughly attempted, but I am wondering wich style would better fit the map ?

With larger trees, it would cover also geographical features like hills or the like , while smaller ones would be less "artistic" or visible but in a way allow more the underlaying geography to be seen ...

What 'ts best?

[Mouse]

I stared at them long and hard, and I think somewhere between the two sizes you have shown, though maybe more towards the smaller size than the larger size.

They would fit better with the landscape if they were affected by the shading of the landscape. Right now they seem to float above it because they look the same whether they are in a bright spot, or a shadow.

Is the relief shading all part of the same painting layer as everything else?

[Naima]

yes is all merged ... so u sugest something similar to the small o e but larger and better blended?