Hello Cartographer's guild! Newbie here

[Tolkienreader]

Hi guys, I'm from the Philippines and I have been constantly editing my map for the novel I'm working on. I wanted to use adobe photoshop CS3, but unfortunately I have no background in it. I was searching the internet when I stumbled upon Cartographer's guild. And I was just taken away with the maps that you guys make. It's just awesome.

I have hand drawn this about four times now, constantly editing my map for inconsistencies. I've been meaning to edit it using photoshop so I searched youtube for how to's and I think zombienirvana's fantasy cartography is a great help, but he starts from scratch, I haven't seen one that use scanned maps for starters. I'd wanted to change the forests, blacken the mountains and colorize the map. But i don't know how to. Can someone help me please? Suggestions are most welcome. Thanks guys!

[Immolate]

Hi TR and welcome to the guild. I work with many people from the Philippines every day as my company has a significant call center presence there.

Your map is quite fascinating already, and you've already done the hard part. What I want to suggest to you now may seem counter-intuitive, but I think you should go through a few tutorials using Photoshop... Ascension has a fantastic one out there. This will help open you mind to new ideas and teach you how to do things you may not know how to do. Once you have done some of this, I think that ideas for ways to improve your existing map with start to flow quickly.

One other thing I'd like to recommend. You should definitely spend some quality time with the lasso and pull some of the elements into different layers. Forests should have their own, as should mountains, etc. You will be very glad you did.

I think you'll find that most people here are resistant to telling you what to do. We want you to understand more of what you can do and then experience the joy of deciding yourself what works best. Good luck and I look forward to seeing what you do with your lovely map.

[Tolkienreader]

Thanks immolate, i'll take that into account. I'll post my map when it's finished for sure By the way how can i access ascensions' tutorials?

[Steel General]

Welcome Aboard!

My wife is from the Philippines and I have been there several times.
We are truly becoming an international community

Ascensions tutorials can be found in the Tutorials Forum

[Redrobes]

Welcome, theres a members map under the "Community" menu item (Guild Member Location). I think you will be a dot on your own for now tho.

[NeonKnight]

Welcome to the Guild!

[Tolkienreader]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

[Tolkienreader]

and thanks steel for the info. found it and its really helpful.

[Gandwarf]

Your avatar is disturbing me

[Tolkienreader]

just thought it was funny, I remembered happy tree friends.