Newbie looking for thoughts

[Grymar]

I heard about this place from ENWorld and love what I've seen so far.

I've been doing maps for my campaign (Eberron based) for some time, but they frankly are a bit poor. I've always been disappointed in them, but this last one is certainly better than most I've done. It is of Greentarn Island in the Lhazaar Principalities, the island where the capital Regalport is located. My goal for the geography was to have an island with a solid natural harbor, plus have it be sizeable enough for a number of other settlements and a few types of terrain. I do not have a scale on it yet, but it is about 250 miles west to east.

I use mainly Gimp. This one in particular was done by starting with the outline of an island in the Philippines (Luzon) and modifying it from there.

Any advice I can get would be appreciated. Thanks!

[pyrandon]

Hi, Grymar & welcome to the Guild! I'm glad you found us & I hope your maps and mapping techniques improve--and that you help us improve our maps in turn!

I think this map is great as a starting point. I see no geographical glitches; the idea of tracing a real place and "fantasifying" it is a time-honored technique! Hills/highlands may be a good addition to round out some of the terrain, but I suppose I could say the same with forests, and any other type, too.

Where do you plan t go from here with this map? It's a great start.

[Grymar]

Hi, Grymar & welcome to the Guild! I'm glad you found us & I hope your maps and mapping techniques improve--and that you help us improve our maps in turn!

I think this map is great as a starting point. I see no geographical glitches; the idea of tracing a real place and "fantasifying" it is a time-honored technique! Hills/highlands may be a good addition to round out some of the terrain, but I suppose I could say the same with forests, and any other type, too.

Where do you plan t go from here with this map? It's a great start.

Thanks. I've always had problems doing major geographical features like islands and coastlines, they always end up looking to smooth and planned. That's why I've gone to using actual coastlines for references...they always look much better than anything I could do on my own.

Where to go from here is a difficult question...I'm going to work through some of the tutorials to see if I can improve my use of Gimp to do the terrain. I tend to prefer maps that are more real-world relief type maps than fantasy maps, unless there is a specific reason, such as a found "pirate's treasure" type of map.

I certainly want to redo the hills/mountain ridges, but I'm not sure what to do yet to really get them to a style I like. Beyond that, I guess I am looking for tips on how to add things like forest cover in a way that fits with the rest of the map.

Thank you for the feedback so far.

[RobA]

Hi Grymar!

Nice start to the map. It looks like you used the techniques that Jürgen Hubert documented over at ENWorld?

-Rob A>

[Grymar]

Hi Grymar!

Nice start to the map. It looks like you used the techniques that Jürgen Hubert documented over at ENWorld?

-Rob A>

Not specifically, but I read his ideas a while back and they did influence me a bit.