First Map Ever WIP

[maxsims]

This is my first map. Ever. I did not followed any tutorial. I made the base with Terraj's Planetary Terrain. I then added the snow, the sand, the text, the borders, the rivers and the outline on Paint.net (I plan to buy photoshop soon). I have some difficulties on making mountains (or at least add more depth to the existing ones). The rivers seem to start from nowhere because the mountains are somewhat hard to see. Some advice, good tutorials links and critique would be very appreciated. Thank you, and sorry for my bad english

[Jaxilon]

Nice shape to your landmass. Keep up the good work.

[Katto]

Yes, mountains are difficult. I had to look twice to see them . There are a lot good tutorials on how to create mountains. Have a look at it and experiment.

[Steel General]

Mountains & rivers - the bane of all budding cartographers

[Midgardsormr]

Your mountains do not stand out for two reasons: Their color does not contrast strongly with the land around them, and the shaded relief detail across the lowlands is far too strong. It looks like the entire continent/island is mountainous, and your mountains themselves are merely slightly higher on average. Very slightly.

I do not use either of the applications you referenced, and paint.net tutorials are rather rare, so I can't really point you at much technical help.

You'll probably want to change your font or see if there is an alternate 'k' glyph without that descender. Or, you could convert the text to pixels and touch it up so that they intertwine in a way that looks deliberate. As it stands, it looks sloppy to have the descenders crossing in the way they do. A scale would be very welcome—I can't tell if this is a continent the size of Australia or an island the size of Britain.

Oh, and there is a problem with one of the rivers. Rivers seldom split as they go toward the sea; most of the time, if a river does split, there's been some kind of human intervention to force it to happen. The deltas are fine; it's just the inland split that is probably incorrect. Search for the threads "Getting your rivers in the right place" and "essential river guidelines" for more information. Likely too much information!

And, of course, the obligatory "Welcome aboard!" We're looking forward to seeing more from you.

[maxsims]

Thanks everybody for the comments. I appreciate all your efforts to help me.
I read some tutorials on how to improve mountains/rivers. I'll get on this as soon as I get Photoshop.
Anyway, I've got more maps coming (hand drawn look), so stay tuned, and happy cartographing!