An Icelander Awakens

[Skari-dono]

Greetings to you all!

When I was about to register an account here, I found out that my favorite username was already being used. To my surprise, I found out that I had already signed up few years ago but never posted even once. Hopefully, I will put more work into cartography to rectify that.

Let us start with few facts about myself. I graduated last year with BA degree in English studies from the University of Iceland. I've been working at shops and petrol stations since and during my time there, and inbetween I've been unemployed. I've lived in London for almost a year before I had to move back to Iceland due to unemployment. I aim at further study later this year, but switching from English to general linguistics.

I've enjoyed making maps since I was a wee child, but I have never developed the skill to do it professionally. I've mostly be making maps for my role-playing groups or just for fun. I have considered buying some of the ProFantasy programs, but I don't know if I will. Until I've decided I have turned my gaze towards Photoshop brushes and other such materials. Hopefully, I will find much help on the forums here and develop my hobby even further.

I thought I might share with you my recent creation, and the only map I've done using PS. I used StarRaven's Calligraphic Map Symbols set, which is just awesome

Realms of Sin.jpg

[maxsdaddy]

I saw a great thread here days ago that posted shaded mountains for general use. Thanks for dropping in with a map. A little color on this bad boy and you're on your way.

[Skari-dono]

Thanks for the welcome. I am rather unskilled at landscape coloring but I intend to practice. Hopefully, I can show off a decent result in the future.

[tilt]

welcome to the guild - be sure to check out our tutorials and post in a WIP thread for help and critique while you map

[Lukc]

Welcome and may I suggest a look at the work of the River Police before they catch you .

[Skari-dono]

Thanks, and well suggested Lukc

I've been looking over some tutorials (still haven't found a good one for coloring the way I like it) and I agree that my rivers are... to put it mildly, not acceptable. I think I will do some testing on them.

[jbgibson]

Welcome, Skari-dono ! As for the rivers, just take a look at Redrobes' excellent tutorial on How To Get Your Rivers In the Right Place. Among the implausible placements you show, are rivers running sea to sea. Now, if your technology and setting permits, you could fix that just by labeling them canals :-), but no natural river is going to connect two bodies of water at the same elevation. And close enough to make no difference, connected oceans are at the same level.

So ... linguistics ... that mean you're going to set up conlang(s) to back up your labeling? Or is that too much like school and not enough like leisure? Remember, if you haven't gotten college credit for at least one thing that's really 'play', then you're not trying hard enough :-).

Another tip that might make things look better - in general avoid crossing major linework (borders, coasts, rivers) with labels. That's assuming you have reasonable alternative spots, and you do.

Again, glad you're with us; keep showing us your progress as you fiddle with tutorials and experiment with software - we're a friendly bunch and will do what we can to help you out.

[Skari-dono]

I'll admit, my first try to remake this map was too based on the original I made 5-6 years ago. The rivers were all wrong. I've made some improvements and posted them to the Regional and World Mapping forum. Hopefully, those rivers will meet better approval

As for linguistics, I hope to make a conlang or two for the setting, but I am more likely to use constructed scripts for existing ones to start with. One of the northern cities, Isöldur (labelled Isoldur on the above map), is basically Icelandic meaning Icewaves.

I will work on my labelling. The full-size version allows plenty of room for labelling, so I will definitely consider using smaller scripts.