Details on Worldmap, how far should you go

[Coyil]

Hello Cartographers

I have now dabbeld in the arts of wolrdbuilding and mapmaking for some time, and have decided that I want to try my hand at creating my own world for GURPS. So I decided to start with the geography itself, in order to have a more "natural" approach when it comes to filling it with critters.

Creating the shape and placing mountains was not that hard using some loose geographical processes, however I am at a loss when it comes to placing smaller islands and rivers/lakes on the scale the map has. at the top of the map you can see the north-south "length" of the main Landmass at the given scale.

My two main problems are as follows:

- The coastline seems a little blank to me, but I am afraid that too many island hugging the continent will make it look super unrealistic
- Advice conserning the large rivers, which I would like to include. Are there too many, are they too long, how meandering should they be on this mapscale?

Ur.jpg

All C&C is welcome, thanks in advance
The future citizens of UR

[Edward Maps]

Sup Coyil,

I’ve done some hand drawn maps in the past, but nothing as clean looking as what you’ve done.

I think the rivers look great! They all start from mountains and converge at lower land elevations. Solid work!

Something I’ve done to spruce up the coast lines on my maps is to add a little contour to the coasts. I usually trace outside the land masses with smoother lines leaving small random gaps. I do this twice and it really makes the land pop out. Then I darken the southern edge of the land masses as well.

As far as the islands And land masses you have, you could add more if you think it feels right. Personally, I like your map the way it is.

Nice job!

Edward