# Gallery > Cartographers Choice >  Central Alemnia by Daelin

## arsheesh

*Map*



*Created in: Photoshop*

*Review*
Toward the end of last year Daelin shared this stunning piece with the Guild.  The mountains and soft river basins set on an elegant off-white land-form really make this piece stand out.  Though it has taken several months, we are now proud to introduce Central Alemnia as our new Cartographers Choice featured map.  Well done Daelin!




> Hey guys,
> So, for this map, my goal was just to make the most crisp, fat-looking mountains possible, and let the other elements, like forests and rivers, be secondary. I tried doing some coloring work, but I kept thinking the bone-color monochrome feel of the land was cooler, so that's how I kept it.


*Original thread*
Click here to view the Finished Map thread.

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## lostatsea

Congratulation Daelin  . This map has a nice Feel to it and the mountains are really awesome.

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## Wingshaw

Congrats. A high honour well deserved.

Although the mountains are obviously the standout feature, nothing about this map looks bad, from the forests to the 3d-like legend. My favourite part (after the mountains) is the compass rose.

THW.

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## Bogie

Congratulations Daelin, wonderful map!

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## lonewriter

Great job! I love the colors. This reminds me of the map of Westeros from Game of Thrones.

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## Dearmad

This map is very cool.

Makes me think of Melnibone for all the right reasons.

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## GreatWhiteNorth

Maps like this make me want to sit behind the cartographer every step of the way and just watch. Simply excelled. I read in the original Finished Map thread that you used some of Tom Patterson (cartography God, we're not worthy we're not worthy)'s shaded relief maps, coupled with a bevel/emboss to create that shading effect. You should consider writing a tutorial for this effect, as I for one would love to see the steps in the process. The final effect is brilliant.

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## Bryan Livingston

I love this style. Love the font as well.

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## Viking

Excellent work Daelin!

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## Amaru

I love the color choices, very nice. Congratulations!

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## Benwyn

This is one of my favorites! Excellent job

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## Naima

Looks very beautifull , what specific artist did you use for the mountains from that website? For the mountains? to me looks like they mostly used heightmap data, then reworket that but perhaps not ?

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## Robulous

That's gorgeous - outstanding work. Amazing detail.

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## dekee

Colors are great!

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## kpatrickwv

This is pretty nifty.  I like how the gradient in the text (a bit of an ornamented feature) seems to offset the simplicity of the color palette.  I dig the mountains and the forests, are there specific tutorials or techniques you used there?  I'd be interested in trying my hand at that if so.  Great work, thanks for sharing!

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## pengwing

i love the colors .. 
can you give me the color ID ? i have been having troubles with the coloring 
for both the sea, and the land.  
it really looks awesome

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## smichaelpitt

Very cool map.

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## Celtian

Wow, this is an absolutely stunning map! There is nothing about this I don't like, and the mountains really look amazing.

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## Elothan

I agree with pengwing, it's great! 

Sent fra min GT-I9295 via Tapatalk

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## Sollips

Beautiful map indeed. The compass and the way it radiates is a really nice touch too. The only thing that I find distracting perhaps is that this map makes me feel kinda.. cold ?  :Smile:

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## Deadshade

For me simply the best map on Cartography Guild site.

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## DanielSomerville

Completely gorgeous work. As so many people have said, the mountains are amazing. and I would love to be able to pull those off so well. Good font choices, too! Everything you've done is classic and very readable without being boring.

One extremely minor quibble. When you're talking about geography, "strait" is the proper spelling for a narrow body of water, not "straight". Just so you know!

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## Daelin

> When you're talking about geography, "strait" is the proper spelling


I think that's what's called a brain fart. I suck.  :Mad:

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## Chick

You know, I noticed that too when I first looked at the map, but then I looked at other maps by Daelin and on subsequent ones, it was spelled "strait", so I figured he already knew ....  :Smile:

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## Verteska

I have been trying for weeks to make a map and am struggling. This is truly a beautiful map and certainly motivational for me to keep trying. <3

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## Katerek

gorgeous, absolutely stunning.

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## Sly9

> I have been trying for weeks to make a map and am struggling. This is truly a beautiful map and certainly motivational for me to keep trying. <3


This map is a great inspiration and motivational piece, no?  :Smile:

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## CursedLich

This map is absolutely gorgeous! Already my favorite map. Do you plan to draw someday the rest of Alemnia? I would love to see it.




> Beautiful map indeed. The compass and the way it radiates is a really nice touch too. The only thing that I find distracting perhaps is that this map makes me feel kinda.. cold ?


I had the same impression at first. At the south portion (shown in the map) of Thyrimland, there is a jungle, it is probably located in an equatorial position. North of Sethoin is covered by tundra, so, most of the map is between the equatorial line and the subpolar line. Subtropical and tempered zones seems to be the most common zones.

If you were talking about the colors, sorry, my mistake.

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## Daelin

> Do you plan to draw someday the rest of Alemnia?


No. Though my recent map, Southeastern Solvena, could be considered a part of the same world as Alemnia. But how the rest of Alemnia or Solvena or indeed that entire world looks, I have zero idea. The maps are meant as one-offs, and during the making of them, I paid much more attention to the style and look of the map, than the actual geography.

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## RigoIII

This map is simply beautiful!

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## umbraldragon

Another success.  Wow, you must spend a lot of time on cartography.  It's paying off, you are an artist.  great work  :Cool:

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