Aragwyll

[Dreylin]

Greetings Cartographers!

I recently discovered this site, and after lurking through several threads, I've decided to get in on the action.

I'm a long time player of D&D and other roleplaying games, and for the last several years, my friends and I have been using a shared game world. There have been multiple iterations of maps for our setting over the years - beginning with one small kingdom, and has been expanded and revised several times. I have always been the primary cartographer and world builder, even when I have not been the one running the game. We started a new campaign recently (the last one having fizzled out over a year ago), and the current storyteller asked me for some maps and related details about the world. When I went to pull them up, I discovered I had misplaced or lost most of what we had. This then, is my reconstruction, revision, and expansion of the continent of Aragwyll.

First, I sketched out a quick and rough map from memory for the storyteller to use as a working reference while I worked on a nicer and more detailed map. Please forgive the poor scanning quality - its from a cellphone camera in less than perfect lighting. It's a starting place, and will all be completely painted over eventually anyway.

Scanned Pencil on Paper:
Aragwyll - Pencils.jpg


Added a coastline in photoshop - with some revision to match the one basic regional map I was able to find:
Aragwyll - coastline plus gwendire.jpg


Then I threw in a canvas texture and started trying to paint some mountains. I have mixed feelings about them. This is about the point that I started seeking out tutorials and samples of what others had done, and found this board.
Aragwyll - terrain and canvas.jpg

[Chick]

Hi Dreylin, Welcome to the Guild!

There is a great tutorial in the sticky section of Tutorials, called Quickstart Guide to Fantasy Mapping: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=4276

From there, go to Hand Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=10655

Once you have completed those two tutorials, you'll be well on your way!!

[Dreylin]

Thanks for the welcome and helpful links chick! I'm working my way through them and trying out some of the techniques.

This is a test of a sea, and some inked mountains. I wonder if I'm using the best style of mountains for the scale of my map though. Perhaps something a bit more top-down would be more appropriate for a continent.
Aragwyll - ink and sea.jpg

[Chick]

I think what you have done looks like a good start. The scale of mountains depends on the scale of the land. If that is a full continent, the mountains may be a bit large, or not If you are using Photoshop, you can make your mountains on a separate layer and then enlarge or shrink it until it looks right to you, so as to get the size right.

[ChickPea]

I think this is a great start and your mountains look good so far. The only thing I'm not so sure about is the glow around the coastline. It actually made me blink a couple of times when I opened your map, as my eyes were a little dazzled. It doesn't seem so bad when you're zoomed in, but when you look at the whole map I feel it's a little overwhelming. I would dial it back just a teeny bit.

[Dreylin]

Thanks for the suggestions! I agree that the land looks like it has an outer glow, where what I want is the suggestion of shallow waters. I think I'll reduce the saturation on the sea in general a bit too. As for the mountains, while I like the style I have going, I think a bit higher angle view and smaller scale will help sell the map as a continent roughly the size of Australia. My next update will be after the weekend.

[ChickPea]

Looking forward to it.