New girl here. I'm Soraya!

[Soraya]

Hello wonderful Cartographer's Guild!
My name's Soraya. It's lovely to meet you all. I'm a fantasy writer and I make maps. The second is a more recent development. I've been working on multiple manuscripts for several years now and only just got serious about cartography. I've always been artistic and I would hand-draw maps for my own projects, but I wanted to take it to the next level. With my photoshop experience from a graphic design class, I've thrown myself into the deep end of creating maps.

My Twitter friends love my work, but let's face it, they're writers and I love them to death, but they're not cartographers. I'm hoping to post a couple examples here, so the pros and more experienced artists can give me any tips or critique.

Please drop in and say Hi! Or look me up on Twitter @sorayacorcoran

I attached my latest map. It's for one of my own novels. Let me know what you guys think and if I can improve on anything at all. Thanks!


Valen Antique.jpg

[Greason Wolfe]

Ssssssshhhhhhh... I am going to tell you a secret... Your friends are right to love your work. That's a nice looking bit of work you posted there.

Oh, and welcome to the Guild.

GW

[nopkin]

Hi Soraya! Welcome to the guild!

Your map looks really really great! If this is just the beginning of your mapmaking, I think you have a great future ahead.

One thing I would mention (even though I'm not a pro or a more experienced artist ) is that the sea on the right is a bit hard to distinguish from the land because of the similar colors that you used there. It took me a little while to figure out what is sea and what is land. The bottom-left side is perfect, though.

Anyway, great job! Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing more.

[Wired]

I have to concurr, except for the eastern sea this map is damn near perfect! Welcome!

[J.Edward]

Hey Soraya, welcome to the Guild.
And a nice intro there. Always love a hello that comes with a map.

I have to concurr, except for the eastern sea this map is damn near perfect! Welcome!

I agree. The color being mostly the same as the land... it doesn't read right away as sea.
The texture for the the southern waste and the tundra adds a lot.

Really nice work. Look forward to seeing more of your work.

[nopkin]

I have to concurr, except for the eastern sea this map is damn near perfect! Welcome!

And that's how you tell a pro from a noob... the pro says "the eastern sea"; the noob says "the sea on the right"

[Mouse]

Lovely

Your friends are right, Soraya

Welcome to the Guild

[Soraya]

Ssssssshhhhhhh... I am going to tell you a secret... Your friends are right to love your work. That's a nice looking bit of work you posted there.

Oh, and welcome to the Guild.

GW

Thank you! It's nice to meet you, Greason

[Soraya]

Hi Soraya! Welcome to the guild!

Your map looks really really great! If this is just the beginning of your mapmaking, I think you have a great future ahead.

One thing I would mention (even though I'm not a pro or a more experienced artist ) is that the sea on the right is a bit hard to distinguish from the land because of the similar colors that you used there. It took me a little while to figure out what is sea and what is land. The bottom-left side is perfect, though.

Anyway, great job! Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks!
I see what you mean there, with the EASTERN sea It's because of the texture I used beneath the layers, the values aren't the same throughout. I'll see what I can do to darken that side up more to match. Nice to meet you!

[Soraya]

Hey Soraya, welcome to the Guild.
And a nice intro there. Always love a hello that comes with a map.


I agree. The color being mostly the same as the land... it doesn't read right away as sea.
The texture for the the southern waste and the tundra adds a lot.

Really nice work. Look forward to seeing more of your work.

Thank you ! The underlying texture has different values, so I see what you mean. Pretty sure I can change that, no problem
Nice to meet you!