Kalam

[Kalameer]

Seeing what I have in this particular area, I submit the following (please try not ripping me a new one too quickly...I'm not nearly as skilled as most here):



Album link - http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3516

I know, I know...they look like they were drawn by a toddler...with crayons. I'm working on them (especially after the examples I've seen this morning!)

[Kalameer]

I'm now stripping the garbage from resizing the pieces into this amalgam of the continents...

[atpollard]

Silfonthus has two 'lakes' near the center of the continent of different shades of blue. Is the darker 'lake' a swamp?

I suggest browsing: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...he-right-place

The reader's digest version ... Rivers start near mountains and flow to the coast, joining together into larger rivers as they head to the coast.

Some specific advise that is generally true:
Rivers do not cut across the continent from one coast to another.
Rivers do not split apart as they flow to the coast.
Multiple rivers can flow into a lake, but only one river will flow out.

A color key (even just a crude note) would help others to follow your design intent.
It is hard to comment further without understanding what the colors represent.

[Kalameer]

I get that every time (swamp vs. water). I need a new color scheme. Like I said...I'm not very good at mapping, yet...but that's not making an excuse for it very well...so I'll ask this: when the source of the river is the heartwood of a tree instead of a series of high ground springs, what would be a good way to represent that on a map? (Think BIG tree...the entire continent is resting on/in it's branches)

[Kalameer]

Wait...before that gets addressed, I do need to explain that there is an order of events pertaining to that...before the tree came along and grew under Silfonthus, the land was raised (divine manifestation) out of the ocean by 300 feet, under which the tree grew and nestled the land in it...I just didn't get around to making the appropriate changes in the landscape (that's the noob mapper part...thinking it would remain relatively flat land under those circumstances)

[Kalameer]

Obviously, I'm going to need to create a natural shift of the landmass to accommodate the settling of it within the tree's branches. Considering that either if the deity picked it up as a cone-shaped landmass and set it in the grown tree or if the tree grew into place under the original landmass (which I would tend to lean toward the latter...less energy overhead to expend), the land is going to settle over the branches.

I'm figuring this by comparing the original landmass on one layer (turned down opacity to half) and drawing the tree to conform to it. Gravity is still doing it's thing, which would, over time, cause some of the landmass to drape over the branches.

And...the inland sea that was in place looks to need shifting south to drain into the lowest crux of the trunk. The rivers will cease to exist based on this movement. I think I can preserve the swampland in the rendering, but the tree's shape is going to reduce it in size.

[Kalameer]

I suppose I should ask...does the tree force the removal of the snowcap to the north?

[atpollard]

I suppose I should ask...does the tree force the removal of the snowcap to the north?

This was the easiest to answer, so I chose it first ...
... not if it snows along the northern edge of the branches.

For example, a tree growing under North America from the arctic circle (canada) in the north to mississippi in the south would still have year round ice covering its northernmost branches, coniferous forests and tundra north of the great trunk, and moss covered cypress swamps driping from its southern most branches.

[atpollard]

I get that every time (swamp vs. water). I need a new color scheme. Like I said...I'm not very good at mapping, yet...but that's not making an excuse for it very well...so I'll ask this: when the source of the river is the heartwood of a tree instead of a series of high ground springs, what would be a good way to represent that on a map? (Think BIG tree...the entire continent is resting on/in it's branches)

OK, let's take a shot at this ...
(First, a really interesting idea - sort of Norse meets middle earth).

Now, the biggest tree that I am familiar with is the Live Oak. Not that it grows that big, but it offers a visual image of how a large tree might work.
If the world rests on the trunk and main branches with leaves beyond the edge of the land, then the continent should be roughly round with an irregular edge (like the tree).
The branches would form mountain ranges that start out as hills at the center of the land and radiate out from the center growing taller as you get further from the trunk. Between the branches, the ground sags creating valleys that slope either towards the center (like a bowl) or away from the center (like a a webbed starfish) depending on how much you want the ground to sag.
Rain falling on the ground would flow towards the center of the valleys and form streams and rivers that flow downhill ... to a lake at the center or waterfalls around the edge.

Color schemes are something that I can't help with (very color blind), but even a single large symbol in each color area to identify it for now would work fine ... for example a snowflake on the white for snow and ice or an inverted V for mountains. USGS has some simple standard symbols that most people would recognize.