New Version of Old Map

[Mouse]

Ah-ha! You have given away the location of your two missing cities

[ThomasR]

The shading is very immersive ! Good job !

[- JO -]

Thanks !
Actually, I was trying my roads... I'm not convinced. Are they too thin ? Too black ? Too straight ?
I'll think about that for tomorrow...

[Mouse]

They might be a little dark? The darkest sort of road I've ever seen is wet or fresh tarmac, but even then its more of a charcoal grey, not black.

Most maps I've seen (with the exclusion of road maps) the roads are either a similar tone to the grass and a different colour, or paler than the grass.

There are no real hard rules. It's up to you. I mean, if the book says roads paved with obsidian, then I guess they would be black.

Whether they are too straight or not straight enough depends on the book. Think, though, about how bendy our relatively modern roads are in the real world - especially in hilly areas. There are zigzag roads up steep slopes, and there are also roads that wiggle quite prettily around a single contour line just above the shore of a lake - hemmed to it by the surrounding mountains... and so on

EDIT: Come to think of it the only roads I've ever seen that are straight or straight-ish with only minor deflections along the route (and quite apart from the horrible scars inflicted by the motorways), are the great Roman roads we have here in the UK, and the roads that traverse some parts of the Netherlands and our own Fens in East Anglia - both for the same reason - its extremely flat, consisting of ground that in the middle ages was either shallow sea or salt marsh.

[- JO -]

Thanks for your advices for the roads, Mouse, it was really useful, and I think it's better now.

So... all the cities and villages are there, as the roads... and I've started to label all that... (Sorry, it's in French, as the stories is written in that language)

[Mouse]

The roads look a lot better now I only have one more suggestion about them, and that is to somehow distinguish them from all the other kinds of black line in the drawing? I have no idea how you would go about it, but where the coastline, the rivers and the roads all have a lot of black lines around them, and they are close together, it's starting to look just a very tiny bit stripy?

EDIT: I clean forgot to say that the whole map is looking a lot better now you've got more settlements in it

[ladiestorm]

wait... is the campaign cartographer?!? it looks so much different than what I'm used to! I think I like it!

[Mouse]

Jo's using PS for this map

[- JO -]

Yes, it's all made on PS... For once, I just wanted to draw all by myself... But with the time it takes, I shall return on CC3+ sooner or later, I think :-)

Anyway, here's the look that this map should have at the end...
I still have a lot of labels to write, and a bit of triming around the border, but you should have an idea of the result.

Thanks Mouse for your advice on the roads. I colored them in red, and I managed to "shade" (?) the coast lines and all the black lines which are everywhere on this map...

Let me know what you think ...

[Mouse]

Oh yes - most definitely a huge improvement with the lines Not sure what you would call it other than 'shading' them.

I really like all the little details you've started to add with all the little coastal settlements as well, and the frame and title scroll just set the whole thing off