Hello there! Fantasy cartography hobbyist here!

[theodorandrei4]

Hello! My name is Theodor and I come from Romania. I have been doing fantasy cartography for 3 years now and I can say I evolved a lot. Only a couple of months ago I decided to turn myself to the cartography community and got the courage to start commissioning maps (almost no success so far). This is the day I registered and decided to say hello and meet new people and hopefully make new friends around here. Here is some of my dearest work so far. I work with pen and paper, but hopefully one day ill be able to turn to digital medium by saving enough for either a normal tablet or a digital tablet or slab. Wanted to ask you, fellow cartographers / mapmakers / game masters, if you have any tips you can give me on how I can improve my maps or on how I can get more successful getting commissioned and maybe monetizing some of my work.
20210115_104734.jpg3.png20210110_132644.jpg20210103_092504.jpg

[Adfor]

Welcome! I've had a couple character art commissions come out of Romania.

All in all your maps are a great start. I think color is a natural next step in your journey, though. B&W has its place, but generally a piece always looks more appealing with some color. You have a lot of options for that; most commonly used are probably colored pencil, then watercolor, and more rarely, markers. I grew up using colored pencils on my maps at the young age of 13, so I have a decent amount of wisdom to pass along, should you decide to venture down that path. Otherwise, I'm mostly all new to watercolor, and I've not used markers for coloring a single time.

Also, make an inspiration folder. You'll find that people do certain elements in ways that tickle your fancy. Having a reference of that material when you start to play around with different ways of doing things is very helpful.

IR

[JoshStolarz]

Hey Theodor, welcome to the Guild and thanks for sharing a bit of your work!

Making an income from drawing maps involves two primary things.

1: Honing your craft
If you want someone to pay you to create a map, then you need to deliver enough value to the client that they are willing to exchange money for your skill. Obviously, you spend the rest of your life honing your craft and you never "arrive" at perfection. But, there is a certain level where you can feel confident that you are able to deliver enough value to the client. My first commission was definitely not the quality that it is now, but I can still look back at it and be proud of the final piece. It is important to get some honest feedback on your work though so you can know where you may be lacking. Which, it seems is what you're doing here.

2: Marketing your work
You can be the best cartographer in the world but if nobody can see or find your work, then you'll never get clients. Most artists fail and end up in the "starving artist" category because they don't know how to market themselves...or they just don't like doing it. Meanwhile, there are plenty of artists who are less skilled but do just fine because they actually enjoy the marketing process. If you want to make money as an artist, then you need to get eyes on your work. Particularly the eyes of the people who would pay you for your services. If you want to work with authors, then you go where the authors hang out and start building relationships. Don't spam them or come across as merely self-promotional though because frankly, nobody likes that guy. Be helpful though...if somebody has a map or worldbuilding question, answer it and be helpful. Share your work when appropriate, and build relationships. Make sure you have a social media presence where people can find your work as quickly see if they like your style. I would also really encourage everyone to have a website where you have optimal control over displaying your work.

There is a lot more that could be said on both points, but hopefully that gives you enough to get your mind churning with ideas.

As for honest feedback on your work, I do think you have a lot going for you but you need to take it just another step up before you start taking commissions. Try to clean up your line work a bit as it feels a little choppy. Also, when you're displaying a final piece you probably don't want any of the sketch showing through, so make sure you erase and clean that up. I'd also suggest working on your mountains a bit more to tighten them up, give a little more detail, and work a little bit on your perspective. I do have a couple tutorials on my website for drawing mountains that you may find helpful HERE and HERE.

Again, welcome to the Guild and just keep working at it and you'll get there!

- Josh

[Gunmetal Draws]

Hi! I also just started out, I really like the inclusion of the grid in two of your maps. It really helps the composition!