July 2016 Challenge: Somewhere in the..

[Dysterkvist]

july_challenge01.jpg

This might be bordering on not following the rules, so if I'm cheating here just send this thread over to the world/regional forum instead.

I really wanted to make a world/continental map this time and none of the alternatives I got was an obvious choice for that, so I just started making a continent and then the thought struck me "hmm, some of these locations are rather vague and must be placed somewhere..!"

So I choose to interpret this "but your map must contain AT MINIMUM the prompt you chose. So for my selection above, I'd have to at least map the bridge, but I could also do the whole surrounding elven city if I wanted to." in my favor, I choose 4, 6, 8 or 10 as my location and then I mapped the surrounding area as well...!

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[Diamond]

I think that's allowable. I didn't explicitly say you couldn't merge more than one selection into one map, so I say go for it!

...though I do wonder how you'll show the street and beggars of #8 in a map of this scale...

[ThomasR]

Nice start, you really nailed that style ! A little thing though, beware of the CGRPD (Cartographer's Guild River Police Departement), you got three lakes with no exit or maybe inner seas. They're tipsy about these stuff.

[Dysterkvist]

I think that's allowable. I didn't explicitly say you couldn't merge more than one selection into one map, so I say go for it!

...though I do wonder how you'll show the street and beggars of #8 in a map of this scale...

Yeah I probably shouldn't have outlined that one in the alternatives, but I liked the name..!

Nice start, you really nailed that style ! A little thing though, beware of the CGRPD (Cartographer's Guild River Police Departement), you got three lakes with no exit or maybe inner seas. They're tipsy about these stuff.

I was very uncertain about many elements here, like mountain placement and rivers etc, so I'm trying to read up on this as I go. I will probably add a few outlets. Thanks!

[Josiah VE]

How do you do it so fast?? This map is already AWESOME! How long have you been mapping for? A month or two? You has some serious talent.
I love the subtle colour and shading on your maps, it works really nicely.
There are so many great entries!

[Dysterkvist]

How do you do it so fast?? This map is already AWESOME! How long have you been mapping for? A month or two? You has some serious talent.
I love the subtle colour and shading on your maps, it works really nicely.
There are so many great entries!

One month today actually, finished my first one on 9th of June. :>
I have been working with computer graphics as I've said before, and one of the traits you pick up there very quickly is speed. Everything is always in a rush.

I can give you some potentially intimidating numbers if you like. Getting the map to this stage took about 9 hours and I spent probably 40 min trying to find a good shape using clouds and threshold. I then redrew the outline 2 times before I found a level of jaggedness that I thought looked decent, and probably 1-2 hours at the end spent on trying to figure out a background for it, before arriving at it's current faded look. I also spent some time looking at tutorials for drawing the mountains!

I have been trying to build up speed for years though, so don't feel you should be faster than you are if that makes you stress out. I know I got very stressed when I was younger and saw how fast people were with stuff. It comes naturally with time.

I'm not sure what to do with the colors yet, I quite like this subtle faded tone so far, I will probably change my mind a few times before it's done though.
Thank you though, happy to hear that you like it.

[Josiah VE]

One month today actually, finished my first one on 9th of June. :>
I have been working with computer graphics as I've said before, and one of the traits you pick up there very quickly is speed. Everything is always in a rush.

I can give you some potentially intimidating numbers if you like. Getting the map to this stage took about 9 hours and I spent probably 40 min trying to find a good shape using clouds and threshold. I then redrew the outline 2 times before I found a level of jaggedness that I thought looked decent, and probably 1-2 hours at the end spent on trying to figure out a background for it, before arriving at it's current faded look. I also spent some time looking at tutorials for drawing the mountains!

I have been trying to build up speed for years though, so don't feel you should be faster than you are if that makes you stress out. I know I got very stressed when I was younger and saw how fast people were with stuff. It comes naturally with time.

I'm not sure what to do with the colors yet, I quite like this subtle faded tone so far, I will probably change my mind a few times before it's done though.
Thank you though, happy to hear that you like it.

Yeah, even my mapmaking has helped me in the tiny bit of illustration I've tried.

Okay, maybe not so fast but you get it done faster than me. It probably would take me about the same amount of hours but it's spread out of many days.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention in my last post: For the town you could do an inset with a small map of the town.

[jbgibson]

Did somebody mention rivers? :-)

Nice start, Dysterkvist, and I totally approve of interpreting the rules to suit what you want to map. I have done that multiple times... one just has to figure interpretation of the rules is also the perogative of each and every voter. In any case - already looking good, and I look forward to seeing it develop.

As far as internal dead-end lakes... nothing wrong with them per se. If you read & digest the Most Excellent Redrobes tutorial How To Get Your Rivers In The Right Place you may get a better feel for just what would cause such topography & hydrography. If there's scant rainfall, evaporation can keep pace with inflow. You do get some specific characteristics -- those three dead-end lakes are going to be mighty salty! If there's a lot of rainfall though, over centuries the water level would rise, making for a huge internal lake, and eventually whatever point is lowest on the surrounding divide would be reached by rising waters, and an outlet river would form. The point it drains at would gradually wear down by erosion, lowering the large inland sea bit by bit, with an outlet that got more and more canyon-like. If the rim was geologically fragile that erosion could happen fast - either geologically fast or actually fast on a stopwatch, making for a catastrophic flood. Which would be an awesome story element, and an interesting bit of worldbuilding.

But what you show more matches the "must not be enough river flow to exceed evaporation" case.

If you want your continent to look more "normal" (whatever THAT is :-) ) you could draw outlets to the sea to one, two, or all of those. If you want the interior of your continent to be dry, with Dead Sea/ Salton Sea/ Great Salt Lake kind of environs -- you're there.

[Dysterkvist]

Did somebody mention rivers? :-)

Nice start, Dysterkvist, and I totally approve of interpreting the rules to suit what you want to map. I have done that multiple times... one just has to figure interpretation of the rules is also the perogative of each and every voter. In any case - already looking good, and I look forward to seeing it develop.

As far as internal dead-end lakes... nothing wrong with them per se. If you read & digest the Most Excellent Redrobes tutorial How To Get Your Rivers In The Right Place you may get a better feel for just what would cause such topography & hydrography. If there's scant rainfall, evaporation can keep pace with inflow. You do get some specific characteristics -- those three dead-end lakes are going to be mighty salty! If there's a lot of rainfall though, over centuries the water level would rise, making for a huge internal lake, and eventually whatever point is lowest on the surrounding divide would be reached by rising waters, and an outlet river would form. The point it drains at would gradually wear down by erosion, lowering the large inland sea bit by bit, with an outlet that got more and more canyon-like. If the rim was geologically fragile that erosion could happen fast - either geologically fast or actually fast on a stopwatch, making for a catastrophic flood. Which would be an awesome story element, and an interesting bit of worldbuilding.

But what you show more matches the "must not be enough river flow to exceed evaporation" case.

If you want your continent to look more "normal" (whatever THAT is :-) ) you could draw outlets to the sea to one, two, or all of those. If you want the interior of your continent to be dry, with Dead Sea/ Salton Sea/ Great Salt Lake kind of environs -- you're there.

See this is just what I needed! Thank you very much for this and the link, I will read up on it and make some adjustments.

[Diamond]

An inset map of the town is a great idea, JVE.