WIP - The Southern Continent & Surrounding World

[llopet]

Hello everybody!

I'm currently working on creating a map for a story that I'm writing. The story is centered on the smallest, southernmost continent of its world. Most of my goal in mapping is to create a backdrop for the cultural worldbuilding that I'm doing, and I'm hoping that if I follow scientific principles, I might find some interesting quirks for each region that I can incorporate into its culture and/or give it a specific character.

As for the map, I'm trying to create an information-rich document that I can search through as a reference while writing. I don't think it's going to be particularly pretty, at least not for a while. My current plan of absolute madness is to try to draw out the continent shape in GPlates, mostly since I have yet to find a projection that is kind to polar continents (let me know if any of you have strategies for that!). Then, using the shapefile from GPlates, I'll use QGIS to overlay other important information, like climate, currents, winds, geology, etc, as well as later on, biomes and human societies. I'm not sure if this is the best workflow, so if anyone has any tips and tricks or advice I'd gladly appreciate it.

I’m putting up my latest sketch of the continents for this world, as well as a sketch of the Southern Continent’s most important features. I’m hoping to start building the full map soon and post progress when I have it! I’m also still a beginner at map-making, so I would love any critiques that any of you might have to give my work.

(This is my first WIP post, so if anything is missing or I'm doing anything wrong, let me know.)

Here is the world map:

BA88980F-F3B1-4A75-A47F-DEED46A59E78 1.png

And here is the Southern Continent, with features that I know for sure I want to include (the sea in the middle, mountains to the east, hills to the west, a large lake, a river delta, and a central plateau-ish area):

421E2866-9B04-45B7-884E-5B613CFAB98A.png

[MrBragg]

Since it doesn't look like your landmass is too large, an equirectangular projection centered at 60 S (instead of the equator like usual) should minimize distortions for you. Heck, even an orthographic projection centered on the center of your landmass would probably be fine for your purposes. So, you could draw your continent in the shape that you want to be, then project that back to equirectangular if needed using something like MMPS.

[llopet]

Thank you for the tip and the resource! Didn't know about that projection program, definitely going to need to check that out. And I will most certainly make use of changing the center of the projection, that's really handy

[llopet]

I'm beginning to outline the Southern Continent, drawing it by hand and then in GPlates is working surprisingly well. The island placement needs work - I'm a little unsure of how to hit the sweet spot of not too many and not too few, so I'd appreciate suggestions. Any other feedback is more than welcome as well!

(For scale reference: this is a world about the same size as Earth, and the graticules are at every 10 degrees)

seconddraft_0.000000.png

[BARSKEY]

How is going with your story?

[BARSKEY]

I'm beginning to outline the Southern Continent, drawing it by hand and then in GPlates is working surprisingly well. The island placement needs work - I'm a little unsure of how to hit the sweet spot of not too many and not too few, so I'd appreciate suggestions. Any other feedback is more than welcome as well!

(For scale reference: this is a world about the same size as Earth, and the graticules are at every 10 degrees)

seconddraft_0.000000.png

Is it finished or not?

Do you sell it?