My first Map (WIP)

[Quikdraw7777]

Hello ladies and Gentlemen.

I visit this site quite often, admiring all of the content put up by other aspiring cartographers. Very inspiring material if I do say so myself. In fact, it inspired me so much that I decided to make a continental map of my own. I figured "hey, I had a good old time designing this map - why don't I go show the boys! (and girls)!". A couple of things:

1). As the title suggests, this is a WIP, so all I have down are Continents & Countries.

2). I only prefer to work in standard pencil.

Welp, here goes:


MY MAP.jpg

Roman Numerals = Continents (4, in total)
Regular Numbers = Individual Countries that reside in each continent.


lemme know what you guys think.
Any critiques appreciated!

[mewo2]

Hi Quikdraw7777, welcome to the Guild!

That's a really impressive rendering - you obviously have more artistic talent than I do!

As for the map itself, it might be worth having a think about ways to convey scale. When I looked at it originally, I thought I was looking at a fairly small area, not multiple continents.

One way to do this is to vary the coastline shapes a bit more. In the real world, the shape of a coastline depends a lot on climate and landscape (Canada and Australia are very different to look at). The processes behind this are complicated, but roughly speaking cold and mountainous places have more rugged coastlines than warm and flat places. Somewhere with lots of crinkly fjords will look colder than somewhere with smooth sandy beaches. If you have both on the same map, that will suggest that the area you're looking at is big enough to include both climates.

[Quikdraw7777]

Hi Quikdraw7777, welcome to the Guild!

That's a really impressive rendering - you obviously have more artistic talent than I do!

As for the map itself, it might be worth having a think about ways to convey scale. When I looked at it originally, I thought I was looking at a fairly small area, not multiple continents.

One way to do this is to vary the coastline shapes a bit more. In the real world, the shape of a coastline depends a lot on climate and landscape (Canada and Australia are very different to look at). The processes behind this are complicated, but roughly speaking cold and mountainous places have more rugged coastlines than warm and flat places. Somewhere with lots of crinkly fjords will look colder than somewhere with smooth sandy beaches. If you have both on the same map, that will suggest that the area you're looking at is big enough to include both climates.

Nice, I got a response!!
Thank you!

Yes, you raise solid points about the various coastal shapes representing different climates. I'll be honest and admit that it didn't even cross my mind haha. I also lack that measuring reference that all maps tend to have in a corner with the Nautical Compass nearby - which definitely skews the intended scale.

What's worse is that what you're looking at there is 1/2 of a 9x12 piece of paper. Since the overall size of the map is small, I couldn't throw names in the countries, only the numbers....and the different shading of each country may obscure the rivers I was trying to convey off my mountains.

I'll practice another one and try to rectify these hiccups. Thanks for your input!

[Creativetides]

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

[Josiah VE]

Nice map! You have a great, clean style. To me it somehow gives me the impression of a friendly land.
Looking forward to seeing this progress.

By the way, welcome to the guild!

[Quikdraw7777]

Wow....this is nice man...

@Creativetides
Thank you! I'm going to try to give you guys more. I'm actually practicing cartography so I can draw a decent map for a comic I'm drawing.

@Josiah VE
Wow, those compliments were very nice. Thanks!
It looks like a Friendly land eh? Lol, well, were there are resources desired, there is almost always war. Believe it or not, this map was created from a "Dice Rolling Randomizer" app. These lands were created by that app. The relations between the various countries are going to be decided by that dice app too! Should make for some interesting potential "Shipping Routes" along those waters, eh?

[Elterio Delgard]

Mmmm. What is the scale? Hard for me to give you any details without the scale here. Though I am not one to talk because I don't usually put the scales on my maps when I post them. But knowing your scale helps alot. I know my scale and I keep looking at the world map of our planet to make comparisons such as
1-would this country be too big?
2-how about such geophysical feature being here and so on.

I do like your forests, but maybe adding trunks?

I would maybe had one or two archipelagos but be careful not to just randomly place them. Take a look at the Phillipines and such areas.

As for the coast line, either make it thicker or use a different type of texture maybe because it looks way too similar to shading than water when you have a shading already on the landscape. Maybe keep the shading but add some waves? I had to struggle for several months till I found a fitting coast line style, but people here helped me alot.

[Quikdraw7777]

Mmmm. What is the scale? Hard for me to give you any details without the scale here. Though I am not one to talk because I don't usually put the scales on my maps when I post them. But knowing your scale helps alot. I know my scale and I keep looking at the world map of our planet to make comparisons such as
1-would this country be too big?
2-how about such geophysical feature being here and so on.

I do like your forests, but maybe adding trunks?

I would maybe had one or two archipelagos but be careful not to just randomly place them. Take a look at the Phillipines and such areas.

As for the coast line, either make it thicker or use a different type of texture maybe because it looks way too similar to shading than water when you have a shading already on the landscape. Maybe keep the shading but add some waves? I had to struggle for several months till I found a fitting coast line style, but people here helped me alot.

Hello, thanks for the critique!

Everything you said there makes complete sense. This was my very first map, so I'm sure I can improve if I stick around on the site long enough. The lack of the scale reference really throws things off, doesn't it... I'll add it in this one when I figure out the dimensions I want the world to have.