Hello Cartographers' Guild

[ThreeGivenNames]

Hi all,

Have crossed paths with guild members for years and have been meaning to join you all for about as long, but somehow never managed to. Better late than never, etc.

Have had an avid interest in maps since I first read the Lord of the Rings a couple of decades ago and had one bookmark for the maps at the back of the book and one for where I was up to in the story. Unfortunately I had a primary school art teacher who convinced me I wasn't much good at art and so it was only 2013-ish that I picked up a pencil.

Have made a few things since then, this animated fly through of the League of Legends world is by far the largest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=fb3w1XgKAW8 (and not without some glaring faults!)

Some of my other stuff is over at DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/threegivennames

Haven't been able to spend much time mapping the last couple of years but finally got around to kicking off some projects again.

Have tons of admiration and respect for the artists here and looking forward to hanging out with you all.

Cheers,
Mike

P.S - Apologies and thanks to the person who DM'd me a welcome - I can't reply to you until I make some posts!

[Arimel]

Welcome to the guild! The Lord of the Rings was what led me into drawing maps as well! The maps you have on Deviant art look great at a glance. I will have to come back to check the video though when I have a few more seconds.

[JoshStolarz]

Welcome to the Guild! Lord of the Rings was the fantasy world and map that really captured my imagination as well. I like the more natural textured style of your maps as well, very nicely done. It drives me crazy that an art teacher would convince a student that they cannot be an artist. I always tell people that art is 90% skill and 10% talent, and the good news is skills are learned. Either way...I'm glad you decided to take up art again and look forward to seeing more of your maps in the future

- Josh

[ThreeGivenNames]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

And I agree, Josh - seems the lion's share of getting better is simply practicing more.

[Tiana]

The Lord of the Rings map also inspired me to make my first map, though it was not the first book with a map I'd experienced, as I had seen several kids detective adventure mystery type books with maps of towns or treasure islands and the like. I always knew I wanted to make that art, and wondered who made those maps. Welcome here.