You have come to the right place. The tutorials section will get you up and running in no time and since you already know some of the products you are using it will that much easier for you. Enjoy and welcome to the guild.
Welp,
I'm Castles, actually my name is Chris, Castles is my surname. I stumbled upon these forums when looking for points on creating a map to base my world building off for a few short stories I have in the works! Also, I've been looking at some maps by the users here and WOW. I've instantly become fascinated with this hobby (hobby? pastime? not sure what I would categorize cartography as, I know it is a profession).
I'm a graphic design student, so I know my way around PS and illustrator but as for using them as mapping tools that's a little over my head, as of right now.
I've got access to:
Photoshop (legitimate)
Illustrator (legitimate)
Inkscape (Free of course)
GIMP (Free of course)
A small tablet (one of the older bamboos from Wacom)
Pen & Paper
And I'm eager to learn.
Castles.
Una Salus Victius.
You have come to the right place. The tutorials section will get you up and running in no time and since you already know some of the products you are using it will that much easier for you. Enjoy and welcome to the guild.
“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden
* Rivengard * My Finished Maps * My Challenge Maps * My deviantArt
I'd recommend making a map just on your knowledge and see what you come up with before getting biased by any tutorials because you know your way around the software and are studying design as well. The reason I say this is because maybe you come up with something new and cool. If it ends as a flop then by all means dig into the tuts; there are plenty of them and maybe you learn something there that you can use in other endeavors.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Welcome to the Guild!
Gidde's just zis girl, you know?
My finished maps | My deviantART gallery
My tutorials: Textured forests in GIMP, Hand-Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged
Welcome Aboard!
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Exactly. I've been refining my style and techniques since 2005 and I'm still not happy so I will be refining for a long time to come.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Hello Cris, and welcome.
I'm a new comer too (joined 2 days ago), and also dont have a style or something, but ive drawn some maps and the folks here seems to like them, so by all means give your ideas a go. From what ive seen, I agree with Ascension that some tutorials can set u in some rather predictible way. Its not bad when u got no clue how to draw things, but you try make it from scratch, and u count on your PS skills, something nice and new can pop. Good luck with that, and don't bee a stranger.
P.S. Adds lots of castles, too
Welcome to the Guild!
Daniel the Neon Knight: Campaign Cartographer User
Never use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice!
Any questions on CC3? Post them with CC3 in the Subject Line!
MY 'FAMOUS' CC3 MAPS: Thunderspire; Pyramid of Shadows; King of the Trollhaunt Warrens; Demon Queen's Enclave
Welcome to the Guild...I'd echo Ascension - do try out your own styles first before looking at the tuts.