Batikshal Empire

[Mouse]

Perfect shading

I think it might look really cool with similar colours to your Verdugo Island Map (sorry for linking directly into your album!)

[ThomasR]

Pretty nice but it'd need some additional shading in my eye. Another issue would be the uncharted/unrepresented territories. If you keep them blank I'd make the colors less bright, more watercolory.

[DanielHasenbos]

Please don't get me wrong, when I said subtle I didn't mean simple! I meant that the frame is very soft on the eye and not at all distracting. Great job on that! The map looks great as is so I think I would have to see more detailed color to say if it makes the map better or not. I think color could work very well.

[Voolf]

I would say that maybe it would look better if the colours where more subtle, something like J.Edward last maps style. But if you are going to colour it like now, it needs more shadow everywhere, mountains, land and forests. Covering a light texture with a strong colour 'covers' the subtle shadows that are visible on light texture. You have to bump the shadows again.

Love the frame. This map already became my inspiration piece. Like for example the jungle forests and buildings. Even if you leave it uncloured it is totaly rep worth.

[eViLe_eAgLe]

Beautiful map my friend, It reminds me of an old map Ascension did, it was one of his few hand drawn maps and was a beauty much like this one.
I especially love the icons, they fit perfectly with the style!

[jfrazierjr]

Thanks guys!

Some shading on the frame and a color test (a bit better than the rest). What do you think? I can't help myself to think it feels better without...
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Attachment 92067

I would be interested to see it mostly uncolored but with some very low opacity tones on the rocks, forests, and plains. It's hard to tell with it being partially colored, but i think what you have mite be a bit too pronounced. it's really hard to tell with only a singular shade and on 1/6th of the map. Not sure if I can fully explain what I am thinking or even if it would improve or detract from the map.

EDIT: I hope you don't mind, but I have one of many possible variations of what I suggested which I did in about 15 minutes with a mouse at work(I hate working with the mouse, so it's quite crude). The effect if color is there, but it's faint(you likely need to click on the full sized as it's a bit small in the thumbnail!!!).




As I said above, it's kind of hard to know with only a portion of the map completed how well it will look as a whole. Your colored version looks great as it is, but one possible concern I have is I seem to think someone mentioned you have great swaths of unknown lands and I have a bit of apprehension as to how they might look mixed with deep colors as your partial colored version shows. Of course, you may well have worked all that out, but I just wanted to get an idea for myself how I might do what I suggested if/when I have need for a similar approach.

It might be a bit sloppy as I don't have the original of course where if I did, I would create some layer masks and do a much more through job if it were my own work.

[Ilanthar]

By Mouse
Perfect shading
I think it might look really cool with similar colours to your Verdugo Island Map (sorry for linking directly into your album!)

Thanks! I did Verdugo Island in PSP7 & Wilbur, and the final colors have a lot to do with the wilbur layers... So, not possible here.

By Thomrey
Pretty nice but it'd need some additional shading in my eye. Another issue would be the uncharted/unrepresented territories. If you keep them blank I'd make the colors less bright, more watercolory.

Thanks! More shading on the map or the frame? For the uncharted territories, I'll add some more illustrations and intel, I think.

By DanielHasenbos
Please don't get me wrong, when I said subtle I didn't mean simple!

No problem here! And sometimes, simple is the more sophisticate thing you can achieve . Thanks for your comment!

By Voolf
I would say that maybe it would look better if the colours where more subtle, something like J.Edward last maps style.

Sadly, I'm not J.Edward ! My brain extract is not that efficient... maybe I should try to recruit some of his elves. I have decreased the colors, thanks for your comment!

By EvilEagle
Beautiful map my friend, It reminds me of an old map Ascension did, it was one of his few hand drawn maps and was a beauty much like this one.
I especially love the icons, they fit perfectly with the style!

Thanks! I'd be curious to see the map you're talking about, not sure to have seen it.

By Jfrazierjr
I would be interested to see it mostly uncolored but with some very low opacity tones on the rocks, forests, and plains.

Thanks a lot for the comment and little gif! I lowered the color and used 2 layers. I didn't do all the map and hope it's enough to have an idea. Better anyway, I think.

### Latest WIP ###

[jfrazierjr]

### Latest WIP ###

I think that's great. Again, my assumption for suggesting the low contrast is that those 3 giant swaths of untouched land will remain as sort of remain "unknown areas" and thus not mapped in any great detail. Assuming that to be the case, then yes, the very muted colors will make for a less start contrast to the large empty areas.

Oddly enough, I have been trying to remember which map t his was for days. One problem I noticed the other day has bugged me(was on a tablet and could not reply in detail), but I could not remember which thread it was when I got time to look closely and when I checked it today, I plainly did not see what originally messed with my eyes. The line work seems pretty sloppy and inconsistent in some places . I first noticed this a week or two ago when I was looking at a particular river emptying into the sea. As I moved around the map, I started to see it more and more, now, I see it in other places too. I don't know if it's intentional(in which case I don't like it but that's your call!) or side effect of multiple different integrations and just not noticing. The line thicknesses change drastically within a few mm of each other.

ASSUMING you want to change it do you have pen tablet or are you using a mouse? Either way, I would stick with mostly thinner lines. The mountains/hills are not near as bad to me, but if you wanted to try to decrease the sharpness somewhat on those also, I would suggest using the smudge tool and carefully blend down. FYI, this will work fairly easily if your line work is on a layer separate from color, if not, it might not be worth changing. Likewise, the smudge tool(and/or blur) could be used to make the river mouth more seamlessly integrate into the sea colors as there are many with a clear demarcation line between the two(depending upon how you have your layers, masks with the right combination of blur could work also)

On the flip side, your trees are downright heavenly. The mangrove and swamp areas are just gorgeous and evocative. Likewise, the palm line jungle areas are quite well done also.


EDIT: after looking at this again for a many, many minutes, I conclude you have done the line work this way for a specific reason, so ignore my criticism.

[kacey]

I love this border Ilanthar, and I really think adding the shading to it was a good idea, that's when it really stood out to me. I was going to suggest adding some browner tones to the shading on the mountains, but I see in the coloured section that you're already doing that... Great job so far.

[ThomasR]

I was talking about the map, not the border. It would be hell to shade ! And the subtle color works very well.