Curse you! Curse you all! :x

[Korash]

I do like how this is developing. Just a point about those lines radiating out from the roses (rhumb...rumb...rumbe...ruhmb....ah just pass the rum already...) should be passing through the center of the roses. Keep up the good work.

[Jaxilon]

When I started here I was blown away by how good the eyes of some of these peeps where. Sometimes it can be hard to accept it but if you do it's going to help your map making out by leaps and bounds.

Like you I was fuddling around with the tools a lot a couple years ago. I'm still learning things though so don't fret that.

This was made for GIMP but You can probably follow it well enough to create a nice boarder: http://www.cartographersguild.com/tutorials-how/15037-award-winner-making-map-borders-gimp.

There are two threads you will want to look at here for how to do yadda yadda - that's the "Tutorials/How to" and the "How do I ???".

Totally understand the lack of time for making maps. I suffer from a lot of that myself which can be frustrating at times....speaking of which I have to get to work.

Cheers!

[The Flanston]

Just been looking for a few tips on producing forests and came across this in an earlier post from -Max-

"the forest are some patterns of my own on which I apllied a combination of overpainting and filters then I turned them into new patterns. Once some several blocks patterns are cloned on the map I make some slight dark area on a new layer under the forest one. then I apply 2 highlights made with a custom brush (same color but pressure, opacity and size of the brush different on the 2 highlights)."

Nice and simple then! lol

Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to... design our own bl**dy map!

[Korash]

lol

Don't worry about the complexity, or the "frustration" of mapping. With a bit of perseverance and some practice you will get the hang of it all. Or at least get yourself to a point where you will go looking for those complexities. What you have done so far shows me that you will indeed get there.

Hold on, Hang in there, and enjoy the ride

[The Flanston]

Hey Guys
Still not convinced that I have time to do this but here is my updated outline for Wrath. Thanks for the tips so far. To my mind this outline is too detailed. It's more like a satellite image than a map drawn by some skilled medieval cartographer but I think it's ok for a beginning. Better to start detailed and then think about style, I think. Any and all comments welcome...

I kept to the same basic outline but this time (thanks to Lingon) I tried to match the geography to the latitude. Basically I took sections of our world map from a similar latitiude and used them as a template or guide. Hopefully this will work better on that intuitive level that makes things feel 'right'.

Wrath - New Outline.jpg

I might move this to a WIP thread but I am slightly worried about what I'm committing myself to. Never been able to settle for a half-hearted effort. Once you know something is possible the lure is almost irresistible!

[Azélor]

There is not wrong way to do coastlines since it's just the difference of elevation that make some part over the water and others under it. What Lingon said about the fjord is true and there are a lot of lakes too due to the melting of glaciers and erosion caused by others glaciers.

[The Flanston]

Very true Azelor.

But I thought what Lingon said was really interesting, the fact that my fjords didn't look 'right'. I think we are all more sensitive than we realise and we often notice when things aren't quite right. I think it's different with a classic fantasy map. People accept 'unnatural features' because they are part of a fantasy landscape and often part of the story.

The book this map is for is a fantasy book but it's not high fantasy so I want the map to feel realistic, as if it's a place that really does exist.

I was looking at areas in the far north of Canada... The entire region is peppered, dotted, speckled and crawling with lakes... thousands of them! Some quite amazing places round the world...

[Azélor]

Look at Finland 10% covered by water, lakes everywhere.

And yes it's true we have a lots of lakes in Canada and big one too.

[The Flanston]

Yeah, but have you got a monster in yours? !

Long live Nessie!

[Lingon]

Great job on the new coastline. Like you said, maybe a little bit too detailed for the style you are going for, but that's better than too undetailed I you choose to smoothen it, just be careful not to do it too much! 'Cause I like it