First steps..

[Cathbad]

Being a newcomer to map making, but having a long time passion for them, and a desperate desire to get them out of my head and into something tangible that others can see, I feel a little like a fraud or a noob trying to impress pros by posting here. But! If I am to improve and be confident then I have to over come that, so here I am..

This is the very first draft of part of a world I am working on. Everything I am doing is by hand, pen and pencil on paper. Later on once I am confident in my hand skills then I will start to learn digital.. but not yet!

I am already able to spot things I am unhappy with, such as the mountains. Actually the mountains really bug me out. I need to practice doing better mountains, but they seem so difficult right now!

Attachment 100437

[jbgibson]

Nice work! You’ve got no reason to feel the ‘imposter syndrome’ thing - doubly so: no 1, you made a map so you aren’t faking mapmaking. Every one of us is at a different level of expertise, and no shame in knowing you’ve got lots to learn. In fact I gave you a ‘starter smidgen’ of reputation precisely for being willing to contribute! Second, the folks here who *are* pros are uniformly pleasant and helpful. I’ll take it you mean ‘pro quality’, not just ‘has made at least one map for pay’.

Suggestions- somebody suggested to me once that when the shading protrudes a bit below the bottom of left and right slope lines, it gives an illusion of being grounded, or attached better. Mixing overhead and oblique is always going to be slightly awkward; just accept that and drive on. If you ever want to make *all* the elements of s map oblique, that can work well, but it can be lots of effort to get looking right. My thought about your mountains is they’d look a bit better if a few visually overlapped one another. Having each and every one surrounded by white space keeps them from looking as natural. Too, your general shading seems to be light from NW, yet the hatching on the mountsins reads as shade, and is on their left. If it’s supposed to be snow caps, maybe make lighter?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out plausibility improvements to your rivers. In general, smaller rivers join to form larger ones on the way to the sea, with the angle ‘pointing’ downstream. And you’ll seldom see a lake having more than one permanent outlet, and any splitting typically rejoins right away: islands happen, but outright splits are scarce, and heading two different ways to opposite coastlines, almost never. I’m hedging all those rules of thumb because they aren’t absolute- even on our mundane little planet there’s SoMe exception to about any rule. Thing is, one gets a better looking, and more subliminally acceptable-to-viewer map if you major on plausible effects. If you have story-specific reasons for some oddity, knock yourself out, and ‘“because, magic” is legit, if a bit over common.

That’s a graphical example of a storytelling truism : hoard your oddness; readers/viewers have a certain level of disbelief they’re willing to suspend, so you want to use only odd stuff that advances the story.too much and the viewer just won’t buy it... maybe not even aware they quit believing six pages back, or at the third ‘geology doesn’t work that way’ element.

Not saying you need to achieve perfection - there’s probably such a thing as TOO perfect :-). Just do what you can and ask questions to learn more. Tell ya a secret - even the experienced mappers among us regularly learn something from less experienced guilds people :-). I think you already do a good job with hand drawn work.

[Cathbad]

Wow! Thank you so much for your insight and motivation. You are totally right about the syndrome, and feedback like yours definitely helps.

I'm actually really blown away by the feedback. It is greatly appreciated.

The mountains are definitely something I need to work on, and more so feel determined to do now.

The rivers.. far be it from me to argue with anyone on here about rivers. I tried for the top river to split around a hilly area, but I can see why that wouldn't work visually and will revise. Hopefully I am not far off the mark with my other river that goes into marshland?

Again, thank you so much for the words of encouragement.

[Cathbad]

Here is my second attempt. I must say, I am my own worst critic..

I am happier with the mountains, but I think the shading is still off-key. Mostly I think they look more like a rocky ridge than a mountain range, but this could be to do with scale and something I need to practice more.

The forests are a little better, but not a lot.

I'm not sure it is clear that the north is plains / grasslands, and that the south-east is hilly plains / grasslands.

I am torn on representing the sea. A lot of people seem to use this dashed edging effect, but I feel that a horizontal dashing like in my first map looks visually better on paper. I'm trying to visualise the inside of a printed matt paper book. For digital the dashes make more sense I think.

Attached is the map, with only the paper background cleared out, and the map with a coloured background to help visualisation.Attachment 100509Attachment 100510

[MatchGame]

These look great! I really like your improvement on the mountains and forests. I agree with you about the coastal water in the first attempt. Keep it up!