How to make a fantasy map sketch look professional?

[Wingshaw]

I don't want to hijack somebody else's WIP thread with an off-topic discussion, but I find this interesting.

@Falconius: if art is, as you say, about conveying information, what is it that sets maps apart? Is it that maps, unlike art, have a very practical purpose (not to say art has no purpose, but it isn't, I think, something we need to get out in order to do something/achieve something; i.e. its purpose is passive rather than active)?

@Midgardsormr: I agree with you about art conveying emotion and/or information. I also agree about maps being closer to graphic design/commercial art rather than fine art (although it doesn't have to be the case: the art of Australia's Aborigines often depicted the landscape in maps)--maybe, again, because of the very practical purpose of most maps?

The skills you talk about, it seems, are based on non-subjective principles (eg. the aesthetics of contrast, colour combinations, shape/s). I understand a little about design--I also studied it a little, as it pertains to architecture and urban form--but I do not know how to apply it to maps. I do, however, understand that geological principles will influence, perhaps dictate, the shape of landforms; that meteorology is not random, but follows specific patterns; that the layout of an urban centre is not arbitrary, but responsive to human actions over time; etc. These are things, affecting the content of a map, that are, if not measurable, at least predictable. For me, when I make a map, I look for creativity within these factors-- for example, cultural factors that leave their mark on the urban fabric.

What I am trying to say, in a rather long-winded and perhaps unclear way, is there appears to be some kind of mystical power that the artistically-trained possess; just as mathematicians, and scientists are able to do things that the rest of us cannot, so too are artists and designers. It is interesting to get the perspective, as you say, of a fine arts and a design trained person.

THW

[Midgardsormr]

I know exactly what you mean. The things Waldronate or Redrobes can do might as well be magic from my perspective. I know if I buckled down and practiced my math and coding skills that I would come to a place where I understand it, but from where I'm standing now it's completely mysterious. That was why I linked to that Wikipedia article. So many things about art can be learned, but sometimes it's hard to know where to start looking.