My first attempts at continent building with GIMP

[AtlasNerd]

For a D&D campaign I am writing, I've decided to build a setting from the ground up. These are some of my first attempts at it. I would love to get any feedback/ideas. I am actively looking for tips on shadowing the islands and also how to add in geographic features.

Some basic information about Vildgard, the name of the continent I am building. It is located in the southern hemisphere of the world, it has an Oceanic climate with some areas of Sub-Tropical climate in the north. I am still working on the scale but am imagining it being approx. 1000 mlies from north to south of the eastern landmass. I have plans to add mountain ranges, lakes, rivers, etc. once I learn how to do it.

Thanks in advance for any tips/critiques. I am looking forward to being part of an awesome community of map enthusiasts!

[Skibud98]

Looks very cool! Great Job!

[AtlasNerd]

Thanks. I still need to add geographic features, it's a work in progress.

[Diamond]

1. Welcome to the Guild!
2. Good start so far; interesting layout.
3. What do you mean by shadowing the islands?
4. As far as positioning geographical features, it depends on how in-depth you want to get. There are people here who start from planetary formation and walk it through tectonic formation, climate, planetary mass and 5 billion other statistics. If that's not your cup of tea, my best suggestion is to look at real-world geography and find out why it looks that way. I always start with mountain placement, since that will (for the most part) dictate where everything else goes.

[AtlasNerd]

1 & 2. Thank you. I originally tired using Inkarnate but the it was too low-res for a continent-sized map. I started with a quick sketch of landmasses when I was bored at work. I took a picture with my phone, uploaded it my computer, then cut the shapes of the landmasses in GIMP and tweaked the coastlines using a tutorial I found on this site.
3. I want to add shadows to the outlines of the islands. They look too flat against the ocean background.
4. I have a vague idea of the geographical layout(city placement, grasslands, forests). I know where I'll put the mountain ranges. From there, I think I'll start to add lakes and rivers, which may change the placement of towns, villages, and cities. which in turn will impact the story.
5. Thank you for responding

[AtlasNerd]

I'm a little stuck on rendering mountains, I can't seem to find any decent brushes for GIMP.

[AtlasNerd]

Many thanks to Roba and Candacis for their tutorials and I got the awesome Compass Rose from Josiah VE. The mountains are ok, but I'd like to try another technique to really get them where I would like them(quality wise) I still to add the names of cities, towns, geographic features, etc.

[Diamond]

For that land/water transition, you could add a stroke along the shoreline to help define things. The thickness would depend on the other elements you place. You could also add some ripples to denote waves along the shoreline. Or, if you're going for a slightly more realistic approach, you could do a continental shelf around your landmasses.

[Josiah VE]

Hey hey! I see my compass rose! So glad to see it in use!
The forests look great though the mountains could use some work, they lack depth. Actually all the continents somehow lack depth, not sure exactly why.
If you want it to be geographically correct your rivers will need to be revised. Read this thread to understand how rivers work a bit: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ead.php?t=3822