Greetings from Los Angeles, CA!

[Signwave]

I happened upon these fora about 2 months ago, and have been lurking on and off since then. I'm really excited to finally be a part of what seems like just such an amazing community of enthusiasts, professionals, amateurs, and everything in between.

I was asked by a good friend of mine to vectorize and then illustrate a fantasy map for his Dungeons and Dragons group, and while I have very little experience in the fantasy/RPG world--save the occasional round of Magic: The Gathering--I do have a background in art, illustration, and drawing. I am currently taking classes to get a degree in Graphic Design, so I'm in the process of learning my way around Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator; I have only bare-bones skills in those programs at the moment.

I made my first "maps" when I was about 10, and they consisted of hand-drawn Mercator projections of Earth, post-sea level rise . I've always been fascinated by cartography and fantasy cartography (as well as vexillology and cognition, but I digress) and I really look forward to learning much more about them. I'd love to be able to construct realistic maps for my friends' RPG games and for my own excursions with the game Minecraft, and to extend my somewhat-competent drawing and illustrating skills into the digital sphere. I don't really write very much, unfortunately, but I do love my Sakura Pigma Micron 005!

Thank you for being here.

Cooper [Signwave]

[Lailokken]

There's a great tutorial section here Cooper. I'm a complete Photoshop noob, but the instructions are so clear that even I could follow them. An artist like yourself should have no problems. Plus, everyone here is very helpful when you ask.

Good luck..and looking forward to seeing your works.

Welcome to the Guild!
-Lailokken

[Signwave]

Thanks! Can't wait to get started on some stuff.

I wonder if I have those old "Alternate Earth" maps lying around anywhere....