My introduction and map making journey

[Neyasha]

Hello to you all!
After obsessively reading through this forum and looking at all the wonderful maps for weeks I finally got my courage up to register. I'm just getting back into map making and I'm also quiet self-conscious when it comes to writing in English (which is not my mother tongue).

I come from Vienna (Austria) and started building my own fantasy world when I was around 16 years old. First I just wanted to have a background for my fantasy novels but things got out of control rather quickly.
I've always loved drawing, so I had a lot of fun with map making. I just found some of my old, hand-drawn maps:
oldmaps.jpg

Around 2004/2005 I started digital painting. I got Photoshop 7 and a small Wacom (Graphire 3) and loved working with it - although I didn't really know what I was doing and my work with PS was a lot of trial and error.
agasidasha.jpg
hoehenklein.jpg

Then three years later I just stopped drawing maps. I didn't have a lot of free time as I started writing my dissertation (never finished it btw), I wanted to concentrate on writing my novels and as I switched to a Macbook I didn't have a working version of PS any longer. My experiments with Gimp were quiet frustrating and I also gave up on worldbuilding in that time.

Some weeks ago I started working on my fantasy world again and just didn't want to look at my old maps any longer. First I tested out some new styles and fortunately Gimp seems to have evolved a lot in the last 10 years.
lidanehoehen.png

I then realised that I needed a fresh start with more realistic coastlines, more realistic mountains and getting tectonics and climate ... well ... rightish.
So that's the point where I'm now - right at a new beginning.
I'm looking forward to dive deeper into this community and hopefully sharing experiences with you!

[Diamond]

Welcome to the Guild, and have some rep for that great illustrated guide to your map-making journey!

[nopkin]

Welcome, Neyasha! Those hand-drawn maps look really great!

[Kalium]

Wooooow these are amazing! Both the old hand drawn ones and the newer digital ones. I think we have lots in common, I started a big sprawling story world at 16 too and it's still going (but my old maps don't look half as nice as yours). I'm glad you posted these and I hope we'll get to see more.

[Neyasha]

Thanks a lot for your comments! I have to admit I was quiet surprised when looking at my hand-drawn maps - I still like the style although they are several years old (normally I can't look at my old pictures ...). But some of the rivers don't make any sense.

@Kalium: Oh, that's really cool! So your world is also background for your writing?