First Map: The Forest Continent

[W_Keystone]

Its looking good. I like the waterfalls and the coastal shading.
If the rivers in the mountains are bothering you, an eraser and giving it another go wouldn't be too much work and perhaps give more of the look you are after.

Kind Regards,
Will

[Draupernaut]

I'm back with added forests and a few spots of special interests, like settlements and old ruins. If you have questions about any of them, feel free to ask.

So about the mapdrawing: I'm a little unhappy with the progress. The map looks "noisy" or something like that, not sure how to express that on English. The Forests and Mountains don't stand out well from each other and the map is hard to understand and read.



In order to improve the map I plan to redraw everything with black sharpy/fineliner. Right now, everything is in pencil and it adds to the noisy look.
Additionally, I plan on adding color.
I made a very quick and dirty test with photoshop. I haven't used Photoshop much yet, and will have to learn how to do that in a was that looks good. But I think that I can find tutorials and ressources on that topic here in this forum.



Tell me what you think

[Draupernaut]

Okay, so it's been a while. That is because 2 days after my last posting, my son was born, and so a turbulent time with very little sleep has started.
But still, I managed to retrace the pencil-lines with black fineliner.

I think the map still looks messy, but the details "pop" more now, which I like.



Tell me what you think.

Next step will be coloration and lettering of names of places.
Both of which I feel very insecure and will propably look for some tutorials here on the forum and elsewhere.

[Draupernaut]

My first try colorisation.

First of all: I'm not at all happy with the result.
The water is too dark and saturated. The landmass looks okay, but too much like a drawing of a preschooler.
Need to improve.
Luckily, I used a copy of my original map, so it's not that bad. Just a loss of time.

The colorisation attempt frustrated me. Right now, I'm considering leaving the map b/w or maybe only use shading with pencil.
Will check some maps of other users here in order to get inspiration, or clues on how to do this right.

[Arimel]

I don't know what pre-school you went to but my drawings were not nearly this good!
The colors certainly help with some of the distinction problems you were having earlier, especially in the northern section. Hope you find a style you like without too much pain.

[bkh1914]

Hmmm...
It looks like you used colored pencils and did a water wash in the ocean.
A very light touch with the side of the pencil should give you a much lighter color.

Water colors are much harder to master, but they do let you do very light washes.

[civilbeard]

Congratulations on the birth of your son!

This map looks very nice, especially for someone relatively new to the task (such as myself). I like the way it looks like the meteor came in at an angle. The waterfalls are also a great touch.

[Draupernaut]

Hmmm...
It looks like you used colored pencils and did a water wash in the ocean.
A very light touch with the side of the pencil should give you a much lighter color.

Water colors are much harder to master, but they do let you do very light washes.

You are exactly right, well observed.
I am not experienced in use of color, watercolor or whatever else. Coloring pencils were the only thing I had lying around, and because I could use them similar to a regular pencil, I thought I could give it a go.

Congratulations on the birth of your son!

This map looks very nice, especially for someone relatively new to the task (such as myself). I like the way it looks like the meteor came in at an angle. The waterfalls are also a great touch.

Thank you very much. The thing about the meteor is actually on purpose and part of my worldbuilding. Nice that you realized it.

I don't know what pre-school you went to but my drawings were not nearly this good!
The colors certainly help with some of the distinction problems you were having earlier, especially in the northern section. Hope you find a style you like without too much pain.

Pre-School may have been exaggerated, but still, it looked very childish to me.
Although I like the black and withe style, color definitly help, you are right.


Well, and now finally, a new and improved color scheme. "Improved" at least for my personal taste. You can tell me which color scheme you like more.



Next Thing on the list will be lettering.
This will be a problem, because stupid me forgot to leave blank spaces for the letters.

Do you know a good solution?

[bkh1914]

I like the new colors much better.
Your skill is definitely improving.