So, introduction, I haven't needed to do one in a while. My name is Rose, don't let the name fool you though, I am as male as they come. Whiterose has been a username of mine for a long time and I have gotten use to it, even my former boyfriend got confused with it.

I am a jack of all trades including drawing, painting, digital art, pixel work, game creation (using RPG Maker), writing and cooking, mainly creative ventures. I enjoy reading and playing games, and am currently unemployed, though looking to work in a bookshop.

I am not what I would call a cartographer, I am not as passionate about map-making as most of you are, but with all of the interests of mine I find myself in need of maps sometimes, whether I draw them myself (which I am currently doing) or get others to draw them. Mainly maps in novels is what I am going for, as an aspiring author I have read and looked at a lot of fantasy maps, and wish to have some for my own stories. However as I am not a very skilled cartographer these maps are often quite loose and allow me to get a feel of where locations are in general, but they aren't very polished.

So what I hope to get out of this forum is the assistance to improve my maps, make them pretty as well as practical. I am a fan of maps that are black and white, with no tones except for maybe a light grey for bodies of water, and that aren't overloaded with icons leaving areas up to reader interpretation. I have had a look at what some of you do and I am impressed, even though some maps are not to my liking I can still see the effort and skill that went into them, you obviously enjoy what you do.

I won't be spending a great deal of time here, I still am pretty busy with stuff, but the times that I am here I will be working to improve my map-making skills. Maybe join in on a couple of challenges here and there, have some fun with world building (which I fricken love by the way, I could prattle on about world building all day.), get some of you actuall cartographers to show me the ropes and how it's done.

This intro is a bit formal sounding, when I go back and read it. Must be just the way I type. Don't worry I do loosen up, so don't expect this sort of dry post to be all I do. I know how to have fun, I was a kid once.