Bible Cartographer

[Tierra Gloriosa]

Hello everyone!

I am Rolando (Tierra Gloriosa), and I just recently registered here to learn more about cartography using Adobe Photoshop. My main goal is to create maps for my personal Bible; so I will be using real coastlines. I am a beginner, and I also want to make new friends that enjoy reading the Bible and have a passion for creating maps.

Thank you for reading.

Tierra Gloriosa
(Renown Land)

[arsheesh]

Welcome to the Guild Tierra Gloriosa! Sometime ago a member here created maps for an anti-deluvian ancient world for a book they were writing, but I believe you have the distinction of being the first member (at least that I've heard of) who is creating them for your own Bible. Great project! There are a number of resources here to get you started. The tutorials section ought to be the first place you stop. You could spend literally days browsing through all of the tutorials though. If you are looking for tutorials specific to Adobe Photoshop I'd recommend having a look at the "Tutorials in PDF Format" sticky at the top of the section. It offers a breakdown of many tutorials by software. I wish you all the best in this new project.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Tierra Gloriosa]

Thank you Arsheesh! For sure I will have a look.

[jbgibson]

Hi, Ronaldo - welcome to the Guild! I've toyed with using historical/ Biblical settings for a few of the contests that have run -- if that strikes your fancy, that'll give one a fixed deadline and a bit of incentive. One need not even aim at *winning* to have fun therein, and the usual mode of posting works in progress as one goes can get you a lot of constructive criticism. Which won't be harsh - we're a very supportive bunch. And while the Guild is mostly *fantasy* worldbuilding, there's a strong undercurrent of alternate history going on, not to mention occasional outright real-world mapping.

In any case, like Arsheesh said if your skills are scant, then following tutorials, intentionally making them throwaway, will get you up to speed quickly. The throwaway bit can help: you aren't as invested as if you were working on something you need or want to keep forever, hence you're more free to experiment. Many of the tutorial techniques start with ways to generate plausible landforms - don't let that put you off, even though you already have specific exact territory in mind. You'll find some 'looks' that you like can be reached even with preexisting land/sea/climate.

[pinky]

just last week i came across this interesting geoglogy article.
and started thinking about game maps in a whole different light.

when you mentioned bible, right away i thought about a talk i heard once
about the tunnel that Hezekiah built to supply water to troops during siege,
and did a quick google to find out if there is already a 3D map of the tunnel.

what i found out came as a surprise, and oddly, brought me right back to Skyrim:
the central city in the game has a river of undisclosed origin running all thru the town,
and what i just found out is that it is based, at least loosely, on a city in the bible.

"...its major source of fresh water, the Gihon Spring,
is on the side of the cliff overlooking the Kidron Valley.
This presents a major military weakness..."

so happy to not be thinking how unrealistic the design of the in-game city is anymore.
thank you