My world, Noryen

[T Mick]

wMXvx.png

Alright, I'm starting it. That's the first bit of Noryen. Noryen is the world that I'm making. What you see there is the hopefully-final draft of the coast. Though this is the first you guys see of it, those lines have been though more revisions than I can count, from the initial sketch on a yellow notebook, to numerous versions drawn from memory on Gimp, copied to paper, and then back to Gimp. I'm posting it here, so that you guys can critique it, point out any glaring errors, and, in the future, help with the real map.

[T Mick]

UPDATE 1: Where the water is.

HcJYh.png

Just finished placing crude rivers. They're only for me to know where they'll be, not the final versions. I also adjusted the coast in the places the rivers enter the ocean, adding little inlets, which I like. Finally there is a lake now too. I think it was caused by a meteor, which, as it burned up, spit into two, giving the lake a sort of double crater.

The rivers were placed according to the mountains, which are not in the pic. Basically, they're just long, red splotches. But they represent mountains. You'll see them later.

[rdanhenry]

That seems like a pretty big lake not to have any rivers feeding into it. Maybe there's hundreds of little streams that don't show at this scale, though.

[T Mick]

Update 2: Forests and Mountains

4pcFQ.png

I downsized the lake a bit, and I think it looks better altogether. I have the forests in green and the mountains in red, just to show where they will be. From here on out, I'll be making the actual map. Before I start, does anyone know how to make a vellum texture? Not worn paper, vellum.

[Gidde]

I once scanned my bodhran to get a vellum texture. Drum skin isn't quite the same as vellum, but at least it still looks like skin.

[T Mick]

Update 4: Now we begin

vlwHE.jpg

I have a background now, though I doubt I'll keep that one. It looks kind of shabby. The drum skin idea is great, I think I'll try it. I did the rivers again. They match the ocean in color, and taper at the start, but they're not done yet. I'll probably do the final rivers toward the end of the map. Next, I'm going to start drawing some icons on paper. Hopefully, I'll be able to make them into brushes. The mountains will be first. This part is going to take a while.

[T Mick]

Update 5: What happened over the weeks

QtFhL.png

I did quite a bit over the last few weeks. First of all, I decided the landmass looked better flipped sideways. Once I did that though, the mountain ranges looked weird, so I drew some new ones. Then I drew each individual mountain, which took a long time. I couldn't figure out how to make them into a brush, but that can wait. The rivers were redrawn after the mountains. I was going to use the same forest locations, but I really wanted one, large forest in the east, so I ended up redoing the forests as well. I figured they would look nice if I colored them, and, for once, I like how they came out. I usually don't like my forests. Only one thing is bugging me. The region shown here is about the size of Australia. Do you think that it needs more rivers, given the size?