First Regional Map WIP - D&D Game World

[Twinkletash]

Hi guys,

The DM who runs my weekly game puts in shocking amounts of time prepping encounters and story for the group... but his sketch of the region we are exploring didn't quite get his undivided attention. This is what he gave us when we started the campaign 6 months ago! :

Urimar.jpg

So, after a few months of hand-mapping the dungeon encounters that took place within that Region I found The Guild, which not only helped me make some better dungeon maps, but also got me thinking about larger-scale mapping too... So I figured I might have a go at re-working the DM's Regional Map myself and see if I could enrich it a bit:

Urimar 2.jpg

Now, obvs this is a modest start, and you can probably tell I got bored of it half way through and rushed it a tad.
I got 'bored' because I only worked out after half way round that there are no second chances when you are sketching by hand and if you put something just slightly outta place, you are scuppered!

So, I've posted it here as a starter, as I am planning to start going through some of the tutorials to teach myself how to use Gimp.

I'll post again when I have something digital to share. Wish me luck!

Cheers,
Twinkle.

[Midgardsormr]

Get yourself a roll of tracing vellum, sometimes called onion paper or onion skin. You can use that to trace over your map as many times as you need to get things in the right place. When I do hand-drawn work, I usually go through at least 7 layers, each with a little bit more detail than the last. Sometimes the new layer only gets the new detail, and I use a third sheet to combine them. Then I use carbon paper to trace over it again and transfer a light copy to illustration board, which I then ink. If I want to do digital work, I'll scan the vellum.

[Twinkletash]

Update:
Urimar 1.jpg

... I ditched the pencil sketch I made originally. I uploaded my DM's base map into Gimp and then have started rebuilding it.
None of the components that have been fleshed out so far are fully finished, since I am planning to get all elements done to a similar degree of detail before finessing them all at the end so that I can be sure they all sit together elegantly.

I have followed some odd bits of tutorials, but for the most part, I have just been hand/mouse drawing directly onto the document and building up the layers freehand as I go. It's very slow, but a fun way to get used to using GIMP for the first time.

Cheers,
Twinkletash

p.s I know there is a peculiarly large border around the map. I have plans for that...