Hi There Guys and Gals

[Whiterose]

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.

[Jalyha]

Hi welcome to the forums.

There's a lot about world building (in bits and pieces) all through the forums.

I hope you have fun and make some good maps

[Bogie]

Welcome to the Guild, Happy Mapping!

[arsheesh]

Welcome to the Guild Rose, you have come to the right place to hone those skills. There are heaps of tutorials here that can help you along the way. It's also a good idea to post WIPs of your mapping projects here and ask for feedback. You can glean sage advice that way.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Whiterose]

Thank you all for your greetings. My focal points are writing and art and map-making seems to bring those two things together. I personally enjoy a novel more if I have a map to go with it as I'm not very good with directions. Having a map which shows that the lake is this far from the village rather than saying "north for three miles, south for two, etc." is much more enjoyable for me. Provided the map is simple enogh that anyone can follow it mind you.

I definately can't be two critical of other maps, but I can offer a reader's persective, so I can give feedback as a member of just the humble reader. I definately have a prefers style, but as an artist I value everything and will also look at how well the map matches its purpose.

Glad to be here, I will post some WIP's just as soon as I am able to put some together, most of my maps are on paper and my scanner decided to give up work and move to Hawaii.

[Whiterose]

Sorry for the double posting here guys but I seemed to have dropped off the radar there for a while and I didn't even remember if I had actually joined this forum, let alone if I had actually posted an introduction thread. But lo and behold I did so rather than posting another one I thought I would just reply to the old one. Hope that's okay. Now to apply my meager map making skills elsewhere.