Observer no more

[JonDon]

I have been lurking this place since mid-summer this year, and I've finally gotten the motivation to sign up for this forum after I read Robert E Howard's essay The Hyborian Age. I had just begun writing my own essay on a world of mine, a purely fictional one. As I read the first paragraph of the essay, I realized that I really had no idea what I had in mind for the overall idea of my world. And so, I decided to draw a map.

One slight problem, though.

I don't know how to draw maps.

And so, I begin a new quest, this time to learn how to draw at least a decent map of my world, just to get the whole gist of it myself, if you understand what I mean.

Right now, all I have is paint.net and a cracked copy of Photoshop CS6 that gives me a trial prompt every time I open it.

I am at a loss. I need help.

[ChickPea]

Hi JonDon and welcome. You might be better downloading a copy of Gimp (www.gimp.org). It's perhaps not quite as fully featured as Photoshop, but it's free, and we can't condone software piracy!

The reason I suggest Gimp is that there are many tutorials written for it, and I don't believe there are very many for Paint.net. It is of course up to you if you want to continue to use Photoshop.

Take a look at this post as a starter point. There are also a bunch of downloadable PDF tutorials in this thread. I would suggest picking two or three and working through them. Even if the final result isn't exactly what you want, you'll learn a lot from the tutorials, which will help when you go in your own direction. There are other threads in the Reference section relating to geography/tectonics etc. I'm not sure how realistic you want your fantasy world to be. At the very least, read this comment, as this is probably the No. 1 mistake people make when they start out.

Think about the style of map you want and the type of detail you'd like to include, and perhaps sketch something out. It helps to get some ideas down on paper before you dive in. You can perhaps start a thread then explaining what you have in mind and people may be able to offer more specific advice. Mostly, have fun!