Frustrated User

[twowolves80]

Long-time member, first-time poster. I currently draw fantasy maps by hand, culling names of towns and cities from real world cities and regions around the world to add more realism by way of regional linguistic "flavors." I also plan on adding a royal seal and legend, as well as the usual medieval compass lines, trade route lines, sea serpent and sailing ship illustrations, and any other detail I can cram in.

This is Western Corthesia, approximately the size of Eastern and Western Europe. Once this map is done, I plan on going back over it and creating a tongue-in-cheek travelogue detailing every major feature and city of the map, as well as creating submaps of cities, dungeons, castles, et cetera. All part of the joy of having obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. lol The more visual detail, the better.

Attachment 124530

Attachment 124531

Attachment 124532

Don't know if this will work. For some reason, uploading photos to this website on Safari is a hot mess with a lot of problems and buttons that do not function as they are supposed to. For instance, using the attachment button down below took me to another tab, dragged the photos (from where I have no idea since the album no longer exists, but never contained the photos I uploaded to who knows where on my profile--I can't find them) to the box, and hid add inline. Poof. Screen flashes and takes me back to my profile, while the forum tab with my post disappears and I have retype everything again.

*sigh* Sorry. Not having an easy time on this website at all, and this is the only site of worth for fantasy cartographers. And I'm not touching Google with a ten foot pole.

[Ilanthar]

Welcome!

First of all, your maps are great! Very harmonious and convincing style.

And about your problems, may I suggest to just use another web browser? It doesn't have to be Google Chrome. I'm avoiding Google as well, using Linux & Mozilla Firefox, and it works pretty well.

Welcome again, looking forward to see more of your work.

[Naima]

Those maps look fabulouse.

[Bogie]

Very nice maps!

Safari has a lot of problems on a lot of websites. I do well on most sites, this one included, with Firefox. I only use Chrome for Roll-20 because Roll-20 was enhanced for Chrome.

[KaiAeon]

Your maps are amazing.

[twowolves80]

Thank you, all, for the kind words about my amateur efforts. I love drawing them by hand to make them as "organic" as possible. Are there any good software suggestions that are easier/more intuitive than ProFantasy's? lol

I probably will switch to Firefox for this forum--Xenforo-powered forums (I'm assuming this is a form of Xenforo...?) seem to have issues with Safari, and this wouldn't be the first forum I've had to do that for.

Otherwise, I do love the content here. I am so backward that I don't even use any type of digital editor. lmao I wish I could get a copy of Corel with various texture/icon stamps I could drag and drop to create maps. I've bought ProFantasy MapMaker in the past, but it's still pretty esoteric to me as I'm not well-versed in autocad functions, only CorelDraw and EngraveLab (I work as a laser engraver on two 80 watt CO2 lasers).

I taught myself through laborious practice and emulation of styles I found in books such as the Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time series, as well as the Thomas Covenant Chronicles. Maps, for me, have always told a story in and of themselves, and I have found that the more detailed a fantasy map becomes, the more easy it is for the eye to rove across the contours of the landscape and conjure up images in one's mind of the far away lands and cities full of mystery to pique one's curiosity about the book's contents.

Ultimately, what I'd like to do with the encyclopedic almanac I plan on developing in conjunction with this map is to release it into the wild for people to take the frame work and develop it further into stories to populate the landscape even more. A sort of OGL (Open Game License) that developers/authors can use freely to draw upon and create more works in a harmonious canon that becomes a creative effort. The canon structure could be kept via a wikipedia-style forum board akin to that of STEP for Skyrim, and the number of maps would grow as more people contributed for things like keeps, castles, caverns, et cetera.

Or am I pipe dreaming? lol Either way, this map is a lot of fun to work on. Looking forward to posting more progress!

[Redrobes]

Yes very nice maps.

I use linux with Firefox. When I want some attachments I type the message and then use the attachment manager. I agree that its not great that it takes you to another page but you can copy the text before it jumps you out. It should keep the text intact tho and not bin it. But you can also just post the message without attachments and then edit the post and add them in afterwards knowing that your text is safe. But I have to say that with my browser its not really an issue.

You certainly have huge talent and potential and were glad you have come here to hang out.

[Kthonia]

Sorry you're having trouble with your browser, but thank you for sharing this work.