Hi

[caters]

Hi everyone. I am from ohio. I write a lot and am currently writing about a planet called Kepler Bb. The humanoids on this earth-like planet have a mainly underground civilization so a lot of landforms are where they were before there were humanoids on this planet.

I am thinking of drawing maps of different regions of Kepler Bb including all landforms by hand and I was wondering if any of you can help.

As far as landforms are concerned some of the hardest for me to draw are realistic looking mountains, rivers, and volcanoes.

Now I will tell you why each one is hard for me.

Mountains are hard for me to draw mainly because of the white paper blending in with the snow. I have been told that the best way to draw something white is to use a white pencil on white paper but I can't see a difference between white paper alone and white paper with a white pencil because they are so similar that my brain thinks "These are both the same white. I can't tell them apart." when they might not be the same white.

Rivers are hard for me because I tend to draw them relatively straight but I know that rivers may start off straight but are never straight for long. The branching is also a problem for me because I always leave little gaps between the branches of the river and the main part of the river.

Volcanoes are hard because:

1) There are so many types of volcanoes
2) Lava flows themselves are as hard for me to draw as rivers because a lava flow is basically a river of lava
3) When I draw the summit of the primary vent of the volcano it always looks like the peak of a mountain has broken off and not like the primary vent of a volcano
4) I never know whether to draw smooth flowing lava, a lava fountain, or both since volcanoes can have lava flows and a lava fountain during the same eruption or have 1 or the other
5) I never know whether I should draw an active volcano, a dormant volcano, or an extinct volcano

I have problems with other landforms when I draw them but not as many or as bad as with these 3 landforms.

[Chick]

Hi caters, Welcome to the Guild!

To get you started, there is a great tutorial in the sticky section of Tutorials, called
Quickstart Guide to Fantasy Mapping: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=4276

From there, go to
Hand Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=10655

Once you have completed those two tutorials, you'll be well on your way!!

As for white on white, perhaps a slight grey for the mountain ridgelines would help?

[arsheesh]

Welcome to the Guild Caters. The links Chick pointed out are a great place to begin. Also, if you browse the tutorials section you'll find that there are several tutorials on the subject of drawing maps by hand.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh