Share your early maps!

[MistyBeee]

It was already amazing. I especially love your work on the coat of arms, but the map itself looks really great, already showing the premise of your current style.

[Tiana]

I did a map for somebody who already had a map published in a couple novels and I was asked to do a new version. As I looked at the map I realized there was a couple river violations ... I opted to help her understand the issue and provided some solutions that wouldn’t dramatically change the map. She was honestly very thankful and more than happy to let me make the changes.

Honestly as the cartographer, you’re the expert and should be the one to help educate. If the client rejects your advice then you have to make the client happy...but in my experience the client is usually thankful to hear from somebody who knows more about the subject.

- Josh

And in my experience, I've been told "this existing in the way I drew it is important to me for story reasons, I know how geography works in the real world and don't care to make it match up to those rules" more than once. So of course it's worth trying to present corrections... but not all clients are so interested in having critiques on their worldbuilding applied. You should help educate them if they want it, but also not staunch their fun if the rivers are actually an enormous elemental being that moves around as it would like, or the king just dug that canal and the consequences are part of the story, or "well they have to travel by boat from here to there and there and then to there" or even "I like the way mine looks better, can you change it to be more like the original?"

I'm glad you've had positive experiences suggesting changes from the client sketch. I have had those too, and have certainly improved people's designs. Not everyone is so willing to have their vision changed though... and I always let them win.

Anyway, I agree, it was a great looking early map, nothing to be ashamed of.