I've been working on a regional map, which is the bulk of the known world of Äerd (the inhabitants believe there is land to the west, "sun down" land, hence the name of the ocean). This grew out of a D&D game and I've really been enjoying working on it, although generally I am artistically challenged. I started with a pencil sketch and inked in the outlines once I was reasonably happy with it. Then I added some national borders, inked them, and finally gathered my courage and wrote in major area names (my handwriting is not the best).

I already see some of the mistakes I made and plan to correct: (1) better mountains to the east of Westlund and north of Elvesham, since I apparently was lazy; (2) do a 180 degree flip on the lettering on Lake Despair; (3) work on consistency in lettering and letter size; and (4) make the river that cuts the southern continent in half actually touch the mountains. I also need to add a name, compass rose, and legend (closed circles are capitals, open circles are major towns/cities, dashes are political borders, skinny barbell-looking things are mountain passes).

I would very much appreciate feedback and tips. This is my first regional map in 20 years, and my previous ones were just bare sketches for D&D games. I have a few specific questions:

(1) Does the placement of the rivers and lakes look mostly accurate?

(2) How would you recommend showing political borders when they cross the water? The bottom half of the island located northwest is part of Elvesham but I wasn't sure how to best show that on the map.

(3) The unmarked blob on the southern continent is something akin to Death Valley. Any suggestions on how best to render that?

(4) I would like to add roads, shipping lanes, some additional terrain (such as forests), and town/city names, but I'm concerned it will be too busy all on a single map. Would it be better to make multiple maps? I've got my template saved.

Lastly, I'd love to hear thoughts on hand drawing versus digital map-making. I like the feel of hand drawing but I think using layers in Photoshop or Illustrator would be a massive sanity-saver. Currently I'm thinking of hand drawing at first, then switching to a Wacom tablet. I have access to a Wacom Intuous Pro, medium sized, but have never used it.

Thank you! The Cartographer's Guild has been a fantastic resource and I've really enjoyed seeing the amazing work posted here.


Aerd template.jpg

Aerd draft nations.jpg

Aerd (nation labels).jpg