# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > General and Miscellaneous Mapping >  WIP first map - looking for critique

## hereiam

moved thread

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## Mouse

Hello hereiam, and welcome to the Guild  :Smile: 

This is a pretty cool first map. Thumbs up  :Smile: 

But you want me to say more than that, don't you - so here it is:

IMHO The sea is gorgeous, and really doesn't need too much more work, though you might need to tone down the intensity of the colour and contrast quite a lot if you want people to look at your land, rather than continuously gaze at the sea in wonder.  Please note - the ocean could be as dark or as pale as you like overall.  Its the _intensity_ of the blue and the _difference_ between the lightest and darkest parts of the sea that may need to be toned down.  The texture (pattern of brush marks) is very beautiful.  You don't need to do any more ocean painting at all.

The land masses are well drawn/generated, and a beautiful shape.  The rivers look good and the mountains are a sensible scale.  I'm not a great fan of the very dark and rather blockish forests, but I'm sure you will soon sort them out as you continue to work on the land.

You have a lot of very tiny islands, which don't look right simply because there are quite so many of them.

But my overall impression of the map remains that its a pretty excellent map for a first try.

Well done  :Smile:

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## Cartography Dragon

I can do little more than echo Mouse here, but I'll post this anyway.

The oceans are beautiful. Almost too beautiful, they draw the eye away from the land. One option might be to darken the land tones. The mountains look awesome in their scale and their detail. The forests do need some work, but forests are pretty hard to do well. They're probably my least favorite part of _my_ first map.

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