Curse you! Curse you all! :x

[The Flanston]

Inspired, Seduced, Sucked in!

I came across your devilish site when it was time for me to produce a more detailed map for my fantasy book. Suffice to say I was blown away by the range and quality of the work you guys have produced. Feeling truly inspired I decided that I must commission a map at once! I then made the fateful mistake of looking at a couple of tutorials. The little demon of ego on my shoulder began to whisper in my ear... 'Go on... you can do it! Have a go, you coward!'

And that was that! I have now decided to have a go at producing a finished map myself. I must say a special thanks to -Max-. I love his maps and the style is perfect for my book so I will be aiming to try and emulate his beautiful work. Whether or not I ever come close remains to be seen. But I'm gonna have a go

(like I don't have enough to do right now )

Out of interest here's the initial map I have been using to date. Pretty basic I'm sure you'll agree.

The World of Wrath

The World of Wrath.jpg

I now intend to compile all my notes and sketches to produce a map that will do justice to the Guild. Watch this space to see how I get on...

Any comments or advice would be very much appreciated

Cheers

Peter

[Lingon]

Very good choice to do it yourself, way more fun that way

I like the shape you have there. I think extending the continent past the map edge would make it even more interesting – somewhere where it doesn't interfere with the story, of course. Also, the fjords look to be in odd places, but maybe you've thought it through and I just don't see it.

It's a cool font you've picked, but I'm not sure it fits with the compass rose, which looks a bit more modern. Maybe something you already intended to change, but I thought I'd point it out

[Jaxilon]

Awesome, hope to keep up with your progress!

[The Flanston]

Cheers guys
Thanks for the observations Lingon. I'm going to toy around with the edges of the map. I intend to do close ups of each region. In which case they would disappear off the page. But this is the land mass of Wrath and so in one map at least I want to show it all. I will mull that over...

You are correct about he font and the rose. The font is the old classic Black Chancery. Common as muck but I still like it. I intend to ask people's opinion on fonts and where to find good ones. I am also now working on a number of compass roses so any pointers (hehe) would be useful.

I'm really interested in your comment about the fjords. Just read your post that you are Swedish, so I guess you know what you are talking about. But what did you mean, 'they are in the wrong place'? I never knkew there was a right place for fjords. To be honest I just drew them in without much thought. I'm going to hand draw a more detailed outline over the next few days so I would love to get your thoughts on features like that...

And Jaxilon... I am trying to make progress but as well as being a writer I am also a house-husband looking after two young boys. School holidays are a major disruption to work and all associated matters.

Summer holidays...?

Bah, humbug!

[Azélor]

There is something that bother me about that font that I haven't noticed yet. There is more space before the "v" than before the other letters. It's subtile so most people might not notice. Look at Navaria for an example. Unless it's Na varia. Maybe it's just the serif I don't know.

To find free font, a good place to start would be dafont.com

But overall your map is really good.

[- Max -]

One thing you could work on is the coastline. Its looks too harsh/pixellated and on some parts you obviously added some parts with a different brush (which is better btw - Like the Thraece coasts). Also try to make mountains in a consistent style and outline with the overall outline of the map. But that's a pretty good start.

[The Flanston]

@Azelor... You have a very sharp eye, sir I had never noticed that odd spacing before. Thanks for the heads up on dafont.com. Just downloaded a couple...

@Max... Yep I agree about the coastline. Originally hand drawn then scanned in then selected, expanded and filled to make it more obvious. Spot the guy who fumbles around Photoshop with little idea of what the hell he is doing! Still over the years this 'fumbling' has slowly developed into a basic knowledge of how the program works. Still spend a lot of time on Google searches entitled, 'How the hell do I do **** in Photoshop!

Been learning a bit about custom brushes, textures and what makes a nice compass rose. Just tried these elements out on my map. Still a long way to go but It's really pleasing to see the way these elements are used.

Playing with roses, brushes and textures.jpg

Hoping to draw out proper outline today then start some ink sketches that I can convert into brushes. This is one pandora's box that should come with a warning!

[Lingon]

Fjords are actually quite rare in the real world and only appear far north and far south, because they were created by the ice sheets. (When you ask "mom, why does it look like that?" about anything in Sweden, the answer is always "the ice sheets"). So depending on which hemisphere your continent lies and how big it is, all fjords should either be far south, far north, or both if it stretches almost from pole to pole. It looks like you have most of them in the south, so you were not wrong at all, I just think they are a bit too far north on the coast of Acheron compared to the rest. But like I said, they are not impossible, they just stood out as a bitt odd to me, but could absolutely be explained with mountain placement and the size and location of the continent. As a reference, there are very few real-world fjords south of Scotland (I think), and north of the southern third of Chile.

Anyway, the new version looks awesome! The mountains have much finer lines than the rest, making them look a bit out of place, and they should be where the fjords are (or the other way around), but other than that I really like it. Great compass roses.

[The Flanston]

Thanks Lingon, a perfect explanation Will deffinitely be giving this more thought...

I nicked the roses off the internet but will soon be drawing my own. Likewise with the mountains. I have downloaded a few free textures but might pay for a couple from 123rf.com. If I get time today I want to look at aging effects and borders/frames.

Does anyone know a good research or reference place to look for examples of map frames or borders?

Glad you like the map so far. This is just a learning prototype. I'll be putting a lot more effort into the final thing. There's just so much to learn! Arrgghh! lol

[- Max -]

Looks better. i agree with Lingon about the mountains outlines. If you plan to redo the coastlines you can aldo make them thinner to match the mountains better. Also take care of your forests to make them more consistent with the other elements